Why Did Max Thieriot Leave ‘SEAL Team’?

Updated  Nov 2, 2026, 4:24 PM EST

Michael John Petty is a Senior Author for Collider who spends his days writing, in fellowship with his local church, and enjoying each new day with his wonderful wife and precious daughters. At Collider, he writes features, reviews, recaps, interviews, and breaking news on select occasion. In addition to writing about stories, Michael has told a few of his own, from supernatural thrillers to historical fiction. His Western short story, The Devil's Left Hand, received the Spur Award for "Best Western Short Fiction" in 2025 from the Western Writers of America, of which he is a member. Michael currently resides in North Idaho with his growing family.

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It came as a massive shock to audiences when Clay Spenser was unceremoniously killed off in the back half of SEAL Team's sixth season. Max Thieriot's character had been with the CBS-turned-Paramount+ series from the very beginning and was as much a part of the Bravo Team as anyone else. But all of that changed when Thieriot started balancing his work on SEAL Team with that of his then-new CBS/Paramount+ series Fire Country. And, as it turns out, trying to manage two first responder/military drama shows at once — especially with many large seasons — can't last forever. Eventually, one of these shows had to go.

Clay Spenser Has a Tough Arc in 'SEAL Team' Season 6

At the end of SEAL Team's fifth season, Clay was nearly killed on a mission after being hailed on by RPGs. This all came after he made the tough decision to retire from the Bravo Team following this "last mission" to be closer to his family. The season ended with fans wondering if Thieriot would be leaving the show in between seasons, with no closure for Clay's five-season arc. This is a common trope among network procedurals, and something that could've easily recurred here on SEAL Team. Thankfully, that isn't how things went down, but Clay's Season 6 arc was just as tragic to watch unfold.

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Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive: with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably should not work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back. Choose your channel

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Question 01 of 10THE MISSION

01 You are dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain by instinct and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humor while everything falls apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we are walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity and the right exit already arranged.

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Question 02 of 10TRAVEL STYLE

02 You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain nobody else would attempt. I move where vehicles cannot follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else: borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget I will not explain until it is needed. EBy whatever is available. I have driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

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Question 03 of 10UNDER PRESSURE

03 You are cornered and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what somebody is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, comes around behind them, and has it finished before I have moved. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a bluff and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. EShuts it down with maximum efficiency and minimum words. They were already three moves ahead.

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Question 04 of 10DOWNTIME

04 The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who somebody is when the pressure drops is who they really are.

AThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. BA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that one artifact matters to human civilization. CPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a film neither of you was watching anyway. DA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning and somehow becomes the most fun you have had all week.

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Question 05 of 10COMMUNICATION

05 How do you want your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between a partner and a liability.

APrecise and minimal. Tell me what I need and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry. Keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic, but always with useful information buried in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan covering every variable I have not thought of yet. EBarely at all. Silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

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06 Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced and holds the upper hand. How should your partner go at them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate the inner circle, learn everything, and take them apart from inside before they know we are there. BStudy the historical pattern. Every villain of this type has a weakness written down somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The longer they monologue, the more time I have to work out how to beat them. DGo straight at them, directly, using every inch of the terrain. EFind the one thing they have not accounted for, because there is always one, and make sure we are holding it.

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Question 07 of 10LOYALTY

07 It goes badly wrong and you are stranded somewhere hostile. What do you trust your partner to do? Who somebody is when you need them most is the only thing that counts.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anybody knows they were there. BHave been working the extraction since the moment I vanished. The plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later. I would do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I am out. They do not leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

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Question 08 of 10TOOLKIT

08 What does your ideal partner bring that you could not replace? A great partner fills the gap you did not know you had.

ATechnology that should not exist yet and the training to use it in any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural, and the scars that prove it has been tested. CKnowledge of history, language and culture that makes them priceless where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room on earth and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that will not accept a situation is hopeless, and the improvisation to back it up.

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Question 09 of 10THE COST

09 Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? Nobody comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off, always watching exits and counting threats, even at dinner. BA partner who does the job brilliantly and has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be, and always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic and ruin we pass, which slows the whole thing down. EA partner who was never built for this and knows it, but turns up anyway, every time, unasked.

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Question 10 of 10THE LAST STAND

10 Final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world is not ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all. Just a look that means you both already know what happens next. CA plan I do not fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, laid out in thirty seconds. DA piece of historical context that reframes the whole situation and says exactly what to do. ESomebody who steps forward instead of back, because that is who they have always been.

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Partner assignedYour perfect partner is

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Rambo The 1982 original You will never need to ask whether he has your back. You will just know.

Your partner does not talk much, does not need to, and will have counted every threat around you before you finish your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics. He is a force shaped by survival, loyalty and an endurance that no amount of training produces on its own. He does not leave people behind. What you get is the most quietly ferocious partner imaginable, somebody who went through what would have broken anybody else and decided to keep going. Why he is your partner

• He reads ground the way other people read a room.
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From the Collider file

• The 1982 original came from David Morrell's 1972 novel, which ends very differently.
• Stallone cut most of his own dialogue in the edit to make the character nearly silent.
• Five films across thirty-seven years, from 1982 to the fifth in 2019.

Says little Leaves nobody Built to endure

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James Bond Dr. No, 1962 He has survived things that have no business being survivable, and he does it with style.

Your partner arrives perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story convincing enough that you will need a moment to recall what is true. Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he walks into and the most disarmingly charming, which is the whole point. He works in layers, where nothing is what it looks like and every advantage gets used without apology. You will never be bored. You will occasionally be furious. Why he is your partner

• He is better in the room than he is on paper, and he is excellent on paper.
• He will not explain the plan, and the plan will work.
• He treats charm as a tool, and it is a remarkably effective one.

From the Collider file

• Eon has made twenty-five Bond films since Dr. No in 1962, across six actors.
• Denis Villeneuve is directing the next one for Amazon MGM, which took creative control in 2025.
• The search for the new 007 was still running through 2026, with screen tests under way.

Charm as a tool Always briefed Unbothered

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Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 A scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual pairing and a very effective one.

Your partner knows the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is the most important object in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless and occasionally impossible, and also one of the most genuinely resourceful people you could have beside you. He hates snakes and gets attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It will not matter. Why he is your partner

• He has read the thing nobody else thought to read.
• He will risk the whole plan for the artifact, and be right about half the time.
• He improvises better than most people prepare.

From the Collider file

• The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
• Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
• Dial of Destiny in 2023 was Ford's fifth and last outing, at the age of eighty.

Knows the history Reckless scholar Improviser

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John McClane Die Hard, 1988 His superpower is stubbornness and his contingency plan is improvisation.

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything resembling the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and a flat refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it plainly is. John McClane is the great accidental hero of action cinema, a man whose capacity to absorb more than anybody should and keep going would be alarming if it were not so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will come through. Why he is your partner

• He turns whatever is in the room to his advantage.
• He is funniest when things are at their worst.
• He has never once agreed that it is over.

From the Collider file

• Die Hard came from Roderick Thorp's novel Nothing Lasts Forever, a sequel to a book filmed in 1968.
• Nakatomi Plaza is Fox Plaza, which was the studio's own headquarters at the time.
• Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.

Pure stubbornness Improvises Complains throughout

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Ethan Hunt Mission: Impossible, 1996 The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

Your partner has run seventeen scenarios before you finished the briefing, and the one he settled on involves at least two things that should not be physically possible. Ethan Hunt works at the outer edge of human capability, technically and physically, and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organizations that should not exist. He is not easy to know and he will never tell you everything. He will carry the weight anyway. Why he is your partner

• He takes the risk himself rather than assigning it.
• He is three moves ahead and will not say which three.
• He treats your survival as the actual objective.

From the Collider file

• Cruise hung off the side of an Airbus A400M at a thousand feet for the opening of Rogue Nation.
• The HALO jump in Fallout took 106 takes, filmed at dusk for the light.
• The Final Reckoning in 2025 was the eighth film, and was sold as the last.

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The new season begins with Clay losing his leg and having to retire from active duty. Throughout Season 6, Clay struggles to get his life back together after the last mission and works on his relationship with his wife Stella (Alona Tal) and his son Ben. In fact, by the end of his time on SEAL Team, he and Stella even plan to leave their old life behind and start anew. Along with that, Clay spends his final moments helping a vet named Ben (Joey Pollari) in the episode "Aces and Eights," where he stops the distressed vet from killing himself and vandalizing a recruitment center.

Though Clay saves Ben from killing himself, he is found holding Ben's gun by a security guard, who promptly shoots him in the chest. These are the final moments with Clay we see on the show, as he, like Chris Kyle (the real-life inspiration behind American Sniper) before him, used his final moments to save the life of another. Ironically, Clay was once called "American Sniper" by one of Stella's friends all the way back in Season 1's "Collapse," which foreshadows this horrible tragedy.

Max Thieriot Was Doing Double Duty Between 'SEAL Team' and 'Fire Country'

During SEAL Team's Season 6, Thieriot was also working on another ongoing CBS/Paramount+ drama Fire Country, where he plays Bode Leone, a convict firefighter who is forced to return to his hometown (and his family). "At the time, I was fully involved with SEAL Team, so it was hard to imagine being able to go do something else, especially because this ramped up pretty quick," Thieriot told Collider in an exclusive interview. "It became clear that it wasn’t like SEAL Team was gonna be over and done with, and here’s the next thing I could do, so I really wasn’t sure."

Unfortunately, that changed somewhere down the line when both Fire Country and SEAL Team were renewed for their second and seventh seasons, respectively. Given that Thieriot's character on SEAL Team was nearly written off after Season 5, his ultimate demise in the following season wasn't a surprise. With Fire Country's intense workload – 22 episodes a season compared to SEAL Team's 12 — it's no wonder that Thieriot opted to stick with the new series he helped co-create in the first place.

"It really started toward the end of Season 5," SEAL Team showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TV Insider. "There were some questions about whether Max would be back for Season 6, so the Season 5 cliffhanger [in Mali] was a bit dictated by that. And as Fire Country kept passing each development checkmark, it got clearer and clearer that there was a real possibility that we’d be losing Max at some point ... Everyone had talked about how he could do both shows, but it was very clear that that wasn’t the case." With Fire Country shooting in Vancouver, Canada, and SEAL Team in Los Angeles and other locations across Southern California, it just wasn't possible for Thieriot to do both.

Max Thieriot's 'SEAL Team' Co-Star Helped Inspire Him To Create 'Fire Country'

Image via CBS

Fire Country is Max Thieriot's show in more ways than one, and it's all thanks to his SEAL Team castmates. Thieriot doesn't just star in Fire Country, he's also an executive producer, co-creator, and the initial inspiration for the series. "I was driving to work one day with my buddy A.J. Buckley from SEAL Team, and we were sitting there going back and forth," Thieriot told James Corden on The Late Late Show. "... And I started telling him about [my experience growing up in a firefighting community], and he was like, 'Dude, this is a show.' I'm like, 'You think?' And he's like, 'Yeah.'" The more Thieriot explained this idea of a Northern Californian firefighting town and his experience with it, the more people thought he should pursue the project as a series.

"When I started writing it, in the beginning, I wasn’t sure what the route was gonna be," Thieriot explained to Collider. "In the beginning, my intentions were to try to create this world and pitch it, and then have them make a show, best case scenario." Thieriot co-wrote the pilot alongside Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, and would later direct the 21st episode, "Backfire." He had previously directed two episodes of SEAL Team during the show's third and fourth seasons. But in many ways, Fire Country was the project that Thieriot had been waiting to undertake his entire career, and it only took someone like his SEAL Team co-star (Buckley is also a co-producer on Thieriot's new series) to push him to make it a reality. And with Season 5 of Fire Country currently going strong, it's clear to see that Thieriot's vision for the show has not only flourished, but it's become one of CBS' biggest shows.