How Shemar Moore’s New S.W.A.T. Spinoff Changes CBS’ 8-Season Action Series (Exclusive)

EXCLUSIVE: S.W.A.T. is gearing up for a highly-anticipated return, and things will be somewhat different this time around.

2025 saw the cancellation of the original CBS incarnation of the action-packed police procedural series, but that bad news was quickly followed by good news, as Sony Pictures Television ordered ten episodes of a S.W.A.T. spinoff series bringing back Shemar Moore as veteran officer Hondo. Set to premiere on STARZ September 25, S.W.A.T. Exiles sees Hondo returning from forced retirement after a failed mission to train a new crew of young recruits who are both untested and unpredictable, leading to a clash of personalities and generations.

In an interview with ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns for our S.W.A.T. Exiles cover story, Moore discussed how the spinoff will distinguish itself from the original series, saying first off that “there’s a darkness to this show in how it looks.” In characterizing the new series’ gritty feel, Moore threw back to a classic cop show known for its grungy urban realism and in-depth character work. “There's a more human real element. The last show was wonderful, but it was bright, it was very James Bond-y and techie. All that bright is gone, all that techie is gone. It doesn't look like a James Bond layer, it's bad furniture, it looks like we took over the Hill Street Blues set, if you're old enough to remember Hill Street Blues.”

S.W.A.T. Exiles isn’t all grit and grime and realism, however, as Moore confirmed there will still be plenty of over-the-top action in store for viewers as an aging Hondo undertakes the tough task of molding a crew of green recruits into a cohesive team:

But I liked it, we're still superheroes, we're still running around chasing bad guys, doing super cool stuff. But the character work, peeling back the layers of the onion of each individual character, meeting a new group of people, a young group of people, which is frustrating and very hard for Hondo because Hondo's an OG. I'm an old head. In real life, I'm 56, I think Hondo's got to be, I don't know, 44, 45. I dye [my goatee] to keep Hondo younger, and I put on these Hollywood muscles, fake it till I make it. [Laughs] You know what I mean?

Moore then talked about the show’s change in format from the original S.W.A.T.’s case-of-the-week approach to something with more of an arc. “But no, this show, it's compelling for me as an actor because you have an A story, where there's a bad guy and we got to go chase him. But there's this B story, this undercurrent that runs through the season and I'm excited because the old show was more of a formula.”

The Hondo actor explained how the new S.W.A.T. Exiles format allows for deeper character exploration alongside all the traditional cops-chasing-bad-guys action the original show was known for:

It's called a procedural, so there's a bad guy of the day, we run around and figure it out, and chase down the bad guy today, and then next week, there was a new bad guy. That formula worked, and it was wonderful, but this time around, we tweak it a little bit to where you got two stories going on where we got to chase down the bad guys, but there's in-house drama, and in-house relationships. So, you really learn the backgrounds of the characters, and I think that's going to be fascinating for fans.

S.W.A.T. Exiles may not premiere until September 25, but it’s already been renewed for season 2. New season 1 episodes arrive on STARZ weekly on Fridays after the premiere date, until the finale which premieres on November 27.

Cast

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  Shemar Moore

  David 'Deacon' Kay

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  Jay Harrington

  Daniel 'Hondo' Harrelson Jr.

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  Patrick St. Esprit

  Robert 'Bob' Hicks

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  Lucy Barrett

  Sammy 'Sam' Bishop