The series premiere of S.W.A.T.’s spinoff featured a time jump that swept over several exits, death — and a divorce.
During the Friday, September 25, episode of S.W.A.T. Exiles, Hondo (Shemar Moore) is reintroduced two years after the events in the original CBS series. This time Honodo is in a darker headspace after his marriage ended, his mother died and a mission that went wrong forced him out of S.W.A.T.
“Oftentimes, art imitates life. In real life, my mom is in heaven six years now. My father passed away just six years ago. And now I have a daughter and she’s my everything. So I’ve experienced — in my life — the highs and lows,” Moore, 56, exclusively told Us about using his own experiences as inspiration for Hondo. “When there’s lows, you got to sit in it.”
Moore wanted Hondo to go on a personal journey.
“The way my mother raised me is you got to get up and keep fighting. Also look around at what you’re blessed with. So it is very similar for Hondo. So I was like what if Hondo is divorced? He’s been exiled from S.W.A.T. when he was set up for a mission gone bad,” Moore explained. “Everything that he was about and that he worked for was taken from him. Now he’s in that dark stage that he went through when he lost his wife. He has a daughter that he’s fighting to stay a part of her life. And his mentor, his best friend and his confidant have passed away.”
S.W.A.T., which premiered on CBS in 2017, followed a police Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team named Twenty Squad that operated in Los Angeles. After numerous cancellations — and returns — on CBS, the show has shifted to Starz with a new cast and new story.
“This version of S.W.A.T. is more layered — and not just with Hondo,” the actor told Us. “I just love being a superhero. But being just a superhero can get redundant and boring. To be a flawed, optimistic, defiant, persevering human being that enjoys the highs and has to endure the lows but never quits, I think a lot of people can relate to that. That’s why a lot of people root for Hondo and root for this show because even this show itself — because it’s replacing something that people loved for so many years.”
He concluded: “There’s a lot of pressure on this show, and so everybody involved in this show wants to show why this show is worth it, and we can defy the odds because that’s what we do.”
Moore defended the new take on S.W.A.T.
“I was like, ‘OK, if it’s going to be different, then what’s going to be different?’ It looks darker, it feels darker and it’s edgier. The writing is different and I believe a little more grounded and a little more intense in storytelling and character development,” he teased. “It’s multilayered in the storytelling.”
He continued: “There’s going to be a lot of badassery. There’s going to be super cops. We’re going to have helicopter chases, motorcycle chases and car chases. We’re gonna be in there throwing fists and hand-to-hand combat. We are going to do that. But there’s also a lot of layers in the characters that you get to meet in the chemistry dynamic.”
S.W.A.T.: Exiles airs on Starz Fridays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on the Starz app.
