Just over a year after CBS closed the page on SWAT after an amazing eight seasons, SWAT is finally back, and a new chapter has officially begun!
SWAT Exiles brings fans back into the world of SWAT, a world that looks a lot different than the one we last saw when the original series drew to a close in May 2025. Two years have passed since the events of the SWAT finale, and the Hondo we catch up with in the series premiere of SWAT Exiles is far from the leader we know and love. These last two years have been incredibly taxing on Hondo, which paves the way for fans to see a Hondo we've never seen before.
This is a Hondo who has been stripped of his purpose and suffered a series of losses that have shaped into the flawed hero we meet as the show begins. After being pushed out of SWAT, Hondo gets the chance to return to the force, working alongside a ragtag team of recruits who, much like their new leader, have been set up to fail.
The evolution of Hondo and SWAT brings about an exciting opportunity for the show to evolve in a new direction while remaining true to the show that fans first fell in love with nearly a decade ago. As star Shemar Moore told Hidden Remote in our exclusive interview, he couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity to continue Hondo's story and played a major role in developing this next chapter for a character he holds near and dear.
First, I just want to say congratulations on this new chapter of SWAT, I can honestly say I’ve never seen an actor fight so hard for their fans and for a show in the way you did. So I’d love to begin by asking, what has this journey of making SWAT Exiles a reality been like for you?
I'm just, I'm grateful to the fans, honestly. Without the fans, we don't, I don't get to do what I do, and they don't make the show.
I'm a fighter; I'm a passionate dude. I love what I do for a living. I love to perform and entertain. I've been blessed to have a 32, almost I think 33, year career; it's been a journey and evolution. I've grown as a man; I've grown as an actor. I treat my career like school. Young and Restless is where it began, and that was like high school. Then there was Criminal Minds; it was college; and then SWAT was, I don't know, grad school; and then SWAT Exiles was the PhD.
For the fans from around the world to enjoy what we did for eight years and to be able to be superheroes, to be able to create a show that families around the world, young or old, can sit and enjoy this show together, and then for Sony and Stars to believe in the franchise and believe in me and let this train keep on rolling, and all the while we're gonna, it's an evolution. This is still SWAT.
You're still gonna get that theme song and that means you're gonna get crazy action, helicopter chases, motorcycle chases, crazy car chases, and hand-to-hand combat. It’s fun to play a superhero, but to only play a superhero is one-dimensional and can get kind of redundant like a video game.
But we layer it in with these cool stories, these intense stories, and now you meet a new group of people, a young Gen Z crowd that is kind of oil and vinegar to Hondo. Hondo's the OG. They joke on the set and even in the script that I'm the old guy, I'm the OG, I'm unc, I'm Daddy, and I'm Pops. And here I am yet again trying to be a quarterback to this young group of Bad News Bears that have been given to Hondo, with the intention of setting Hondo up to fail.
Hondo's been told to come in and revive SWAT and make it what it used to be, but he's been deceived. He's been lied to that he's actually being set up for a bigger agenda with the powers above for them to fail. Yet again, Hondo has to defy the odds, and I've lived my defying odds my whole life, you know.
You tell me I can't do it; I say, "Watch this." And I give those traits to Hondo, and so this is a thrill ride.
It's SWAT as you understood it, told a little differently. The show looks and feels darker. The tone is darker, the writing is edgier and a little more controversial and colorful, and the character development has more depth to it. There are layers, and you peel back the layers
We're imperfect human beings who fight to be heroic, and the fans will root for the show and root for this squad.
Well, speaking of the change in the tone, we really open the series with seeing a very different Hondo than the ones we're used to seeing and see how much he's lost through these two years. What was it like coming in and playing this character you've played for so long, but in a very, very different space when we find him?
It was actually my request. I say a lot that art imitates life in my life, and no pity part, it's just fact. It's life. My mother, Marilyn Joan Wilson Moore, passed away six years ago, and you know that chapter will never come back, and it shook me. It rocked me because she was my best friend; she was my mentor. I wouldn't have this life, I wouldn't have my mindset, and I wouldn't have my passion without her. I'm very blessed; I'm very grateful. I have a wonderful life, but you know there's highs and lows of life.
I like the idea that Hondo as a human struggles. Even though his light is dimming and he's somewhat in no man's land of understanding what his purpose may be.
In my own life, my purpose was to make my mother proud. Now my purpose is to show my daughter Frankie, who her daddy is, not just as a celebrity or an actor. I want to be the best version of myself so that I can be there for my daughter and show her the world and show her what's possible. And I think it's very similar to Hondo.
He has to sit with himself. He has to look himself in the mirror and soul-search, and his purpose is being the best version for his daughter. Now he has higher stakes with life and death.
He has to survive. Then he also has to finish what he started, you know; he wasn't a marine for nothing. He didn't join LAPD SWAT for nothing and become the African-American leader just for optics reasons.
So, yes, it's somber and sad that he's divorced. Yes, it's somber and sad that his mother's passed away. But now he's got a heavy stack of cards that are weighted against him, and can he persevere?
I think a flawed, broken hero is really interesting and really exciting to root for. So that's just Hondo. Then the character development that you're gonna witness and see introduced with the new cast of characters. They're all uniquely different and uniquely interesting. In just 10 episodes, you're gonna learn who these people are, and you're gonna root for them.
All the while, we gotta be superheroes and run and gun and chase down these bad guys and do it together as a team; it makes for a fascinating, fun, thought-provoking thrill ride.
SWAT Exiles streams Fridays on Starz and the Starz App.
Add us as a preferred source on Google