We’ve got both good news and bad news for SWAT fans.
Let’s start with the good news! In an exciting development, Sony Pictures TV has confirmed that two original members of the SWAT cast will be joining the forthcoming spinoff series, SWAT Exiles. Original stars Jay Harrington and Patrick St. Esprit will be reprising their roles as Sergeant David "Deacon" Kay and Commander Robert Hicks, respectively, in the upcoming spinoff.
Initially, the only original member of the SWAT cast attached to Exiles was Shemar Moore, who will lead the show and reprise his role as Sgt. Daniel "Hondo" Harrelson. However, it seems Sony has begun putting the pieces together to bring additional members of the cast back for the spinoff with Harrington and St. Esprit becoming the first original members of the SWAT cast to officially join Moore in the spinoff.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it seems Harrington and St. Esprit might not be joining the show as series regulars and instead simply appear in a guest capacity. At this time, the pair have only been confirmed to appear in the pilot episode of the spinoff series, which means there is a chance their returns will be contained to one-time appearances in Exiles first season.
There is hope that the pair could appear in additional episodes, but Deadline reports that at the moment their involvement in future episodes remains unclear.
While Exiles is a continuation of SWAT, the original plot description for the show suggests that some time will have passed between when the original show ended and the spinoff picks up.
When SWAT ended, Hondo was very much still a member of SWAT and was leading 20-Squad. However, the synopsis for the spinoff reveals that Hondo is forced out of retirement after a high-profile mission goes wrong. He’s then tasked with leading an experimental SWAT unit made up of untested, unpredictable young recruits.
With time having passed between the shows, there’s no telling where we’ll find Deacon and Commander Hicks when Exiles begins. It’s quite possible they both are still active members of SWAT, but it’s also possible that they, too, have since exited the department and perhaps appear in the episode simply to offer guidance and support to Hondo as he comes to grips with returning from retirement. It’s also possible they could have been involved in the mission that went wrong and that Hondo is coming in to help clean up their mess.
These two storylines seem to be most likely and could explain why they’re only attached to the pilot episode for now. If Hondo was calling upon Deacon to help lead this new team, Harrington would surely become a series regular. The same would seem to apply if Hicks were still overseeing SWAT and was the one who pulled Hondo out of retirement.
Given the fan backlash over the original plans not to include more of the original cast in the spinoff, we can only hope that perhaps these guest roles will evolve into something bigger. For now, we’ll take what we can get and are excited to know that Harrington and St. Esprit will return for at least one episode of SWAT Exiles.