Even though CBS technically canceled S.W.A.T. after its eighth season, a ninth installment is evidently still possible. The police procedural series premiered in November 2017 and was technically canceled three times when S.W.A.T.‘s story ultimately came to an end in May 2025. Like the two times prior, many were upset with CBS for nixing the show from its lineup. However, its conclusion following season 8 seemed permanent. Well, that was until Sony Pictures Television announced that a spinoff, S.W.A.T. Exiles, was in the works.
The S.W.A.T. series finale, “Return to Base,” premiered on May 16, 2025, and was directed by Billy Gierhart and written by Matthew T. Brown and Daniela Labi.
S.W.A.T. Exiles is now in production, but it won’t air on CBS. Instead of being a collaboration between CBS Studios and Sony Pictures Television, Sony will be heading the development of the upcoming offshoot without its former partner. Shemar Moore will still reprise his role as Hondo in S.W.A.T. Exiles, though. As for its plotline, the spinoff features Hondo coming out of forced retirement to lead an experimental unit of young recruits. While its logline indicates that S.W.A.T. Exiles will contain a brand-new cast aside from Hondo, a recent update suggests otherwise.
Hondo’s S.W.A.T Spinoff Can Feature The Return Of The Full Original Cast
Sony Is Trying To Find Ways To Bring Back Other Cast Members
While speaking with Deadline at the Banff TV Festival in June 2025, Keith LeGoy (the Chairman of Sony Pictures Television) discussed the chances of other original S.W.A.T. stars appearing in S.W.A.T. Exiles outside of Shemar Moore. Based on his comments, the odds of more S.W.A.T. cast members returning in the spinoff are high. LeGoy said:
“There is a S.W.A.T family and that family is important. We would love to have other family members involved in some way, whether it’s all of them all of the time, some of them some of the time, or something in between. That’s something that we are still figuring out.”
While speaking with Deadline at the Banff TV Festival in June 2025, Keith LeGoy (the Chairman of Sony Pictures Television) discussed the chances of other original S.W.A.T. stars appearing in S.W.A.T. Exiles outside of Shemar Moore. Based on his comments, the odds of more S.W.A.T. cast members returning in the spinoff are high. LeGoy said:
“There is a S.W.A.T family and that family is important. We would love to have other family members involved in some way, whether it’s all of them all of the time, some of them some of the time, or something in between. That’s something that we are still figuring out.”
S.W.A.T. Season 8 Cast
Role
Shemar Moore
Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson
Jay Harrington
David “Deacon” Kay
David Lim
Victor Tan
Patrick St. Esprit
Robert Hicks
Anna Enger Ritch
Zoe Powell
Niko Pepaj
Miguel Alfaro
Annie Ilonzeh
Devin Gamble
The S.W.A.T. spinoff could be masquerading as season 9. Since Sony and CBS couldn’t come to an agreement concerning the police procedural’s future, Sony Pictures Television executives might have decided that they weren’t ready to let go of S.W.A.T. Consequently, they worked out the logistics and found a way to continue the show. Only time will tell if S.W.A.T. Exiles is just another name for S.W.A.T. season 9 (and where it will find its home), but in the meantime, it feels like the original series never ended.
Why Hondo’s Spinoff Needs To Feature At Least A Couple Of Original S.W.A.T. Characters
Shemar Moore Being The Only S.W.A.T. Cast Member To Return Wouldn’t Make Sense
Based on how S.W.A.T. season 8 ended, Hondo being the only member of the 20-Squad to appear in the spinoff seems wrong. The finale concluded with the team still together, and no one forced Hondo into retirement (like the S.W.A.T. Exiles logline details). So, original characters must appear at the beginning of the spinoff to explain the missing time between the season 8 finale and the S.W.A.T. Exiles premiere. Ideally, they would stick around for the duration of the 10-part series. However, S.W.A.T. fans can’t always get what they want.
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