Is Jason Leaving SEAL Team? What Happened to Him in the Show, Explained
SEAL Team’s Jason Hayes has had an interesting storyline over the seven seasons of the Paramount+ series.
David Boreanaz plays Jason, the leader of the Navy Seals’ elite Bravo Team, who is tasked with some of the most dangerous military missions around the world.
Season 7 of SEAL Team is currently streaming on Paramount+ and will be the final season of the hit TV series.
David Boreanaz has starred in more than 110 episodes of SEAL Team since it premiered. The actor has outlasted many of his co-stars, including Michaela McManus, who plays his on-screen wife.
Though Boreanaz managed to star on the action show for seven years, he admitted that he had reached his limit as Jason Hayes in an interview with TV Insider, saying that “[he] was done” even before it was announced that SEAL Team would end in Season 7: “The trauma is your first kill. How do you deal with that? I started the season thinking, ‘Okay, this is the perfect way to close that cycle for this character.’
I knew it was the right way, and I knew I was done before the writers’ strike. I had expressed my desire to not do the show anymore. I was done regardless of whether they wanted to do two more seasons or one more season, I was done. So then the writers’ strike happened and six months later, it was decided.
It’s unclear how Boreanaz’s departure from SEAL Team will affect its future, but the impact of The 2023 WGA strike meant the actor was able to complete the entire show.
As for why Boreanaz was so eager to leave, the actor revealed to People that “my body just couldn’t take it anymore.” The SEAL Team actors underwent a rigorous training regimen throughout the series’ seven-year run to realistically portray their characters’ missions.
“There were no shortcuts,” Boreanaz said of the grueling production, which required him to undergo four MRIs in four months.
What happened to Jason Hayes on SEAL Team?
Much like the actor who plays him, Jason Hayes has been through a lot on SEAL Team. He lost his wife, struggled with the death of team member Clay, and left and then returned to lead Bravo Team.
In Season 7, Jason is dealing with Season 6’s revelation that he suffered a serious brain injury that could impact his leadership position on the team. As Boreanaz TV Insider notes, Jason is “questioning his purpose and where he belongs” this season, which is told at home with his family or while on duty.
Jason’s fate will be decided when the final SEAL Team episode airs on October 6, but it’s unclear whether the Bravo Team leader will make it to the end.
When asked about the possibility of returning for a spin-off series as Jason, Boreanaz hinted that “he may not make it,” raising the question of whether his character will get his happy ending.
