‘S.W.A.T. Exiles’ Trailer Sees Shemar Moore Lead the High-Stakes Spin Off!! Check It Out!!

In a crowded environment full of successful police procedurals, S.W.A.T. has always been a fighter. The Emmy-nominated Shemar Moore-led action series kept finding ways to survive year after year despite being cancelled not once, but twice at CBS, before finally drawing to a close with Season 8 in May 2025. Not content to turn in his badge, Moore swiftly re-teamed with Sony Pictures Television to keep the world alive with a spin-off, S.W.A.T.: Exiles, that would bring Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson out of his forced retirement to again take the field in uniform. It’s been a rollercoaster since then, from the bittersweet announcement that only Moore would be returning to star to the bidding war that landed the series at Starz and an early Season 2 renewal, but at last, the continuation is almost here.

Exiles is locked in to premiere on September 25 with the promise of a new era under the former sergeant. Where the original S.W.A.T. followed Hondo as he took the reins of Twenty Squad in his home community and strived to mold the unit into a disciplined team built on respect for the people and communication, the spin-off sees his career take a turn. A raid gone wrong that killed a young operator forces him into retirement and away from the life he’s known and built for years. That is, until his old commanding officer, Robert Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit), comes calling with an opportunity to whip a new team full of LA’s most promising rejects into shape, though, in reality, it’s a squad built to fail. Starz has now released the first trailer, which sees Hondo trying to make the best of a bad situation and prove everyone wrong despite some unexpected challenges.

The footage opens with Hondo laying out the purpose of this operation to his new team — they’re meant “to burn together.” While he may be a legend, their superiors see him as just as much of a reject as the group he inherited, but he’ll use that as a rallying cry to get them from nowhere near field-ready to a well-oiled machine built on loyalty and discipline. At first, though, this team won’t resemble the efficiency of Twenty Squad, showing inexperience and indecision in critical situations. They’ll slowly build a rapport through facing the fire and taking on the most volatile threats in Los Angeles, even finding a way to worm into the hardened Hondo’s heart like his old brothers in blue. However, beneath that process, he’s troubled by the revelation that a mole has infiltrated his team and is feeding information to an outside entity that has aspirations of not just derailing the Exiles, but setting all of S.W.A.T. up for failure.

Meet the New Team Behind ‘S.W.A.T. Exiles’

Season 1 will see Hondo grappling with the constant paranoia that anyone around him could be actively working against him and trying to make law enforcement more private and less accountable. Uncovering the truth is just another problem on his mind while trying to build trust, protect his team, and ultimately set them up for a reckoning that could decide the future of S.W.A.T. The Exiles he works with are a colorful bunch, including gun-show influencer Sammy Bishop (Lucy Barrett), socially awkward tactician Ethan Cole (Freddy Miyares), the guarded and determined Cassidy Reed (Zyra Gorecki), wildcard Jude Callan (Ronen Rubinstein), and the ambitious Malik Anderson (Adain Bradley), who may have more to hide than them all. Jason Ning serves as showrunner for this first season, and a few familiar S.W.A.T. faces will be tagging along in guest roles, including Esprit and Jay Harrington as David “Deacon” Kay.