Jay Harrington is finally opening up about Shemar Moore’s S.W.A.T. spinoff, revealing he had no idea a new project was in the works.
S.W.A.T. wrapped up its series finale on Friday, May 16, after eight seasons, but it was later announced that Moore would reprise his role of Hondo for a spinoff series, S.W.A.T. Exiles. However, Moore is the only original cast member expected to appear in the upcoming spinoff.
In an interview with TVLine, Harrington was asked if there was any talk of a spinoff over the past year or so. “No. No. Not once,” he said, adding that even when filming the final episode, he had no indication a spinoff was on the table.
“Because of the way things had happened over the years with [S.W.A.T.] being cancelled, coming back, I had the thought, ‘OK, we could come back.’ There’s a chance, you never say die, especially with the streaming world and such,” Harrington shared. “My choices in my head were that, or it’s over. I did not have a spinoff on my bingo card, for sure.”
The spinoff was officially announced on May 18, but Harrington revealed how Moore reached out to the cast the day before to clue them in.
“Shemar reached out to all of us to say, ‘This is what’s going on…, and, you know, there’s talk that they’ll reach out to us about stuff,’” Harrington recalled. “He wanted to be the one to tell us and say, ‘Your reps will find out shortly.’ That’s when I told my reps, and they had no idea.”
Harrington, who played Sgt. David “Deacon” Kay since S.W.A.T. premiered on CBS in 2017, added that after working in the industry for this long, he knows he isn’t “owed” things just because of the time he put in. That said, he believes the situation could have been handled differently.
“It’s just a fine line between ‘owed’ and ‘just let me know,’ for the studio just to say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re thinking…. It’s a new idea, but this is the route we gotta go, and unfortunately, the way it’s structured, we want to make a clean break, start fresh.’ Well, what do you say to that? ‘OK, well, good luck!’” he stated.
“So if there was any disappointment, it’s that when they announced it, we weren’t mentioned at all,” Harrington continued. “That was it. And it was short-lived because I thought, ‘I’m not going to let that take away from what I know in my heart is eight years of putting in some great work.’”
Harrington admitted that as a “human being” he felt “stung,” but noted, “I didn’t want to go to that place because I thought, truthfully, ‘It’s show business.’ It’s a business.”
The Better Off Ted alum noted that Moore text each cast member one by one and offered the chance to have a call about the situation if needed. “I texted him later and said, ‘I’m sure you did your best,’” Harrington shared. “We’ve been brothers for years, so that doesn’t change.”
As for whether Harrington is open to appearing on S.W.A.T. Exiles if the call comes, he said, “You know, you never say never, you never close any doors. I’d be interested to see if that’s the direction they go, and, ‘How do they do that?’That would certainly play a part. I’ve also had a great time directing over the years, and I’ll be open to that possibility if that call [to direct] comes as well. You never say never.”
S.W.A.T., Streaming, Paramount+