‘S.W.A.T. Exiles’ Trailer Brings Shemar Moore’s Hondo Back — But Someone on His Team Is a Traitor

Apparently, you really can't keep Hondo down. Starz has released the official trailer for S.W.A.T. Exiles, giving fans their biggest look yet at Shemar Moore's return as Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson following the end of S.W.A.T. on CBS. While Hondo has a new team this time around, the trailer makes one thing very clear: this isn't simply S.W.A.T. with a bunch of new recruits.

When S.W.A.T. Exiles begins, Hondo isn't exactly having his best year. A botched raid resulted in the death of young operator Nico Reyes, forcing Hondo to walk away from the career that defined him. That changes when his former commander Robert Hicks (Patrick St. Esprit) comes calling with an opportunity for Hondo to get back in the game. His new assignment is to build a S.W.A.T. unit from a group described as Los Angeles' “most talented rejects,” which already sounds like it should go smoothly.

Hondo's New Team Wasn't Exactly Built to Succeed

The trailer introduces the new officers Hondo has been tasked with turning into a functioning unit: Sammy Bishop (Lucy Barrett), Ethan Cole (Freddy Miyares), Cassidy Reed (Zyra Gorecki), Jude Callan (Ronen Rubinstein) and Malik Anderson (Adain Bradley). Hondo isn't under any illusions about why this particular collection of officers has been put together. After looking through their personnel files, he sees the same rejections and flaws that caused others to pass them over.

Pairing them with a disgraced Hondo doesn't exactly scream that the higher-ups expect this experiment to succeed. In fact, Hondo believes they've essentially been put together to fail. But anyone who watched eight seasons of S.W.A.T. probably knows what happens when someone underestimates Hondo Harrelson.

The trailer shows him attempting to turn his group of outsiders into an actual team while throwing them directly into the dangerous situations viewers expect from the franchise. Somehow, training a group of unpredictable young officers isn't even Hondo's biggest problem.

There's a Traitor on Hondo's Team

This is where Exiles starts looking particularly interesting. As Hondo digs deeper into what's happening around his new unit, he discovers that someone inside the team has been feeding information to outside interests. His suspicions eventually point toward something much larger, with S.W.A.T. itself potentially being deliberately set up to fail.

Someone with considerable power apparently wants the program gone and replaced by something more private and easier to control, and Hondo naturally isn't interested in quietly becoming somebody else's pawn. Now he has to figure out who he can trust while protecting the same recruits he was brought in to lead.

So basically, Hondo has to train the new kids, save S.W.A.T., uncover a conspiracy AND figure out which person on his team is betraying him. Sir, retirement was sounding considerably less stressful.

Some Familiar Faces Aren't Leaving Hondo Behind

While Moore is the only original S.W.A.T. cast member returning as a series regular, Exiles isn't completely cutting ties with the team fans spent eight seasons watching. Hicks plays an important role in bringing Hondo back, while Jay Harrington returns as David “Deacon” Kay and appears in the new trailer. David Lim will also reprise his role as Victor Tan later in the season.

Those appearances should help bridge the original CBS series and the new Starz spinoff while allowing Exiles to establish its own team and identity. That's especially important considering fans spent years invested in Hondo's relationships with the original squad, and replacing everyone around him without acknowledging that history would have been a pretty tough sell.

The new series also comes after one of the stranger cancellation journeys on television. CBS originally canceled S.W.A.T. in 2023, reversed that decision days later and brought it back for what was supposed to be a final seventh season. Strong ratings then helped the series earn Season 8 before CBS canceled it again in 2025.

Apparently, nobody told Hondo that being canceled was supposed to mean leaving television. Sony Pictures Television moved forward with S.W.A.T. Exiles, with Moore returning as both star and executive producer, and the series eventually landed at Starz in the U.S.

Now Hondo has a new network, a new squad and a mystery sitting right inside his own team. After everything it took to get S.W.A.T. off television the first two times, we're not betting against this man anymore.

S.W.A.T. Exiles premieres Friday, September 25 on Starz.