David Boreanaz had plans to leave SEAL Team after season 7 no matter what.
“Starting the season, it was like, ‘OK, this is the perfect way to wrap that cycle up for this character,’” Boreanaz, 55, told TV Insider on Wednesday, August 14. “I knew that that was the right way and I knew going in before the writers’ strike that I was done.”
The actor made it clear he wasn’t going to continue to play Jason Hayes.
“I had expressed my interest not to do the show anymore. I was finished regardless of even if they wanted to do two more seasons, one more season, I was done,” Boreanaz recalled. “So then the writers’ strike hit [in late 2023] and it became six months later and that had already been decided.”
Boreanaz cited a “few” reasons why he was ready to move on, explaining, “My body physically and mentally had found a space that was in sync with the character and knew that that would no longer continue. And I just felt like it was something that I was very clear with and it just made sense and it just unraveled naturally.”
SEAL Team, which debuted on CBS in 2017, follows an elite unit of United States Navy SEALs, a.k.a Bravo Team, as they go on dangerous missions worldwide. After five seasons, SEAL Team moved to Paramount+. Boreanaz has starred as Jason since SEAL Team premiered alongside costars Neil Brown Jr., A.J. Buckley, Toni Trucks and more.
“It wasn’t really a hard decision really to come up with. It just was a natural progression into a special operator, what he deals with, how he goes through certain things,” Boreanaz continued on Wednesday. “I love the fact that it was so exciting to play him, but one thing that was hard to play was the depths of TBI, PTS, the nightmares. That was very difficult for me and I’m just glad that I got through it, did it. And now I can let go.”
While Boreanaz didn’t rule out a SEAL Team revival, he hinted Jason’s return wouldn’t make much sense.
“I don’t want to give away the end, so he may not be able to do that,” he shared after previously hinting at Jason’s potential onscreen demise. “I think the idea of a film is always on the table because you can shoot these stories at any time, coming off a Black Hawk, it could have been two years prior, it doesn’t really matter. … There’s always possibilities, I guess.”
New episodes of SEAL Team season 7 are released every Sunday on Paramount+.
