The Paramount+ series SEAL Team recently wrapped its seventh season. Following the series finale, David Boreanaz, who played Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Jason Hayes, addressed his character’s fate in the military drama.
Speaking to Variety, Boreanaz revealed that the creative team had contemplated killing Jason. “We played with the idea in a season where he is taking more of a command in the HAVOC [control] room and trying to feel what that would feel like,” the actor said. “Personally, for me to put the character in that situation, I didn’t feel that it made sense. I thought it would be more awkward and a little bit more fish out of water. I mean, Master Chief wouldn’t really be a fish out of water, but for that situation it’d be boring.”
“The real essence of the guy is, he would somewhat break the rules. In the open sequence of the pilot, he’d go to the other room, get the files, jump off and almost be killed. He always put himself in that situation and made a narrow escape. That’s who he is, and I’m glad that we stuck with that,” Boreanaz explained. “As far as discussing if he would actually be killed, it crossed my mind at the end of Season 4, where I was just like, ‘Maybe we should just kill him off, and end it.'”
Killing Jason Would Have Been A Bad Choice
“Because it made sense to not complete that other traumatic event that these guys suffered from, I think I would be doing the role of an injustice [if we had killed him],” Boreanaz continued. “Going into the season, before the writers’ strike, I had proclaimed that this would be it for me. It wasn’t something that was thrown upon us. For me, it was quite well-known, and because of this storyline and examining that third kind of trauma, I knew I was doing the character justice.”
Created by Benjamin Cavell, SEAL Team debuted on CBS in 2017. The show moved to Paramout+ halfway through its fifth season. “The series chronicles the lives of the elite Navy SEALs as they train, plan, and execute the most dangerous, high-stakes missions the United States of America can ask,” the official synopsis reads. Along with Boreanaz, the cast includes Max Thieriot, Jessica Paré, Neil Brown Jr., A. J. Buckley, and Toni Trucks.
Boreanaz previously explained that it was the right time to end the series because he was “done, both physically and mentally.” The actor went on to elaborate on the difficulty of playing a military role. “From my perspective, as an actor playing these emotions, I can only imagine how they are for those that are actually living it,” he said. “There’s a process to it. There’s a grieving to it. Ultimately, I don’t think it ever really goes away, but you can have an understanding of how to manage that.”
