After S.W.A.T. ended its eight-season run last month, star Jay Harrington was almost just as surprised about the spin-off as fans.
The actor who played Sgt. David ‘Deacon’ Kay said he didn’t hear about the off-shoot S.W.A.T. Exiles, “not once,” while filming the final season of the CBS parent series, but was given a head’s up via text from returning star Shemar Moore a day before the news went live.
“It was the day before. Shemar reached out to 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,” explained Harrington to TVLine. “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.”
He recalled Moore texting him, “‘I’m around if you want to give me a call.’ So I texted him later and said, ‘I’m sure you did your best.’ We’ve been brothers for years, so that doesn’t change.”
Exiles is set after a high-profile mission goes sideways, pulling Sgt. Daniel ‘Hondo’ Harrelson (Moore) out of forced retirement to lead a last-chance experimental S.W.A.T. unit made up of untested, unpredictable young recruits. Reprising his role as, Moore will be joined by the original show’s 200-person production crew when filming kicks off this summer in Los Angeles.
From left: Jay Harrington, Annie Ilonzeh, David Lim, Shemar Moore, Niko Pepaj and Anna Enger Ritch in ‘S.W.A.T.’
Bill Inoshita/Sony Pictures Television/CBS ©Sony Pictures Television. All Rights Reserved.
Harrington continued, “Look, I’ll be very clear. I’ve been in this business for a long time. You don’t get ‘owed’ things just because you put in your time. … if there was any disappointment, it’s that when they announced it, we weren’t mentioned at all. 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.’”
“As a human being, of course you’re going to feel stung, but again, I didn’t want to go to that place because I thought, truthfully, ‘It’s show business,’” he added. “It’s a business.”
After Moore compared himself to Tom Brady getting traded without his former teammates, Harrington “tried to not take that as a personal anything,” explaining they “talk sports all the time” with each other.
“I know what he was trying to say, and the benefit of the doubt will be given to him because I’ve known him for so long,” said Harrington, adding: “I heard about it — I didn’t see it — and then when I saw it, I said, ‘I know this guy and he’s not trying to diminish us,’ because, hey, if he’s using that analogy, Julian Edelman. Rob Gronkowski… they’re pretty solid athletes themselves and [potential] Hall of Famers.”
As for whether he’ll accept the call if Moore taps Deacon to help with his new ragtag crew, Harrington 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, and I’ll be open to that possibility if that call [to direct] comes as well. You never say never.”
