‘We’d Given It Everything’: David Boreanaz Explains Why SEAL Team Had to End With Season 7

In the final season of the Paramount+ series SEAL Team, Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) and his elite BRAVO unit of Navy SEALs have fought their way off the sidelines and back into the field. Dealing with a traumatic brain injury and a new team member that has shaken things up and caused some tension is a distraction that could prove deadly when you’re working to execute dangerous, high-stakes missions. At a time when the team must stick together more than ever, Jason is also working to prioritize his family, so they feel less like an afterthought.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Boreanaz, who is also an executive producer, talked about why being a part of SEAL Team is a humbling experience, what made him decide Season 7 would be his last playing Jason Hayes, what he’s most proud of accomplishing with the series, shaking things up with a new team member, pulling off some of the most intense action scenes, and the very real possibility that his character might not make it to the end of the season. He also talked about how he’s working to develop various projects, and why he would be interested in a possible revival of Bones, if that were ever to happen.

David Boreanaz Was Physically and Mentally Ready for ‘SEAL Team’ to End With Season 7

Collider: From the beginning of this season, we see some of the effects of what your character is dealing with, which is scary because it puts his life at risk. How much will that continue to affect him? What do you hope that storyline might teach viewers about what service members and veterans actually suffer with?

DAVID BOREANAZ: Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of trauma that we’ve experienced with Jason Hayes, for so many seasons. Eight years has just contributed to the authenticity that has led to a remarkable outpouring of, “Thank you for putting the light on that darkness. Thanks for saving my life. Thanks for helping me get help.” That’s just a tremendous, humbling experience to be part of. For us this season, it’s an intense dive into how these guys deal with their first kill, how that haunts them, and how they deal with that. That’s something that many of them suffer with highly and that brings out nightmares and trauma.

I decided to end the show the way I wanted to end the show with the character. It was over for me. I knew that, and that’s what I expressed to them. I was like, “I’m done, both physically and mentally.” It’s very difficult to portray these types of emotions, day in day out, when you’re shooting them. So, from my perspective, as an actor playing these emotions, I can only imagine how they are for those that are actually living it. The help that is there, is there, but it takes time. 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 through consistency and discipline. That is what we want to show in these stories for this season. I know, for a fact, that happens. From my character’s perspective, does he make it? I don’t know. He may not make it. He may succumb to the battlefield. He may ultimately die on the field of the sword. That’s on the plate for him.

What are you most excited about fans getting to see in this final season? You talked about ending it the way you want to end it, but what are you most proud of when it comes to that, since that’s not something you always have an opportunity to do?

BOREANAZ: Yeah, I’m proud of the full circle of it. I’m proud that I was able, as a character, to examine TBI and PTS, and the welcoming and unwelcoming coming home from the mission, the relationships, the indoctrinations, and the manipulations from the corporate world of government. We’ve always prided ourselves on not being a political show because we’re not. We have a mission. We’ve got a job. That’s what we do. We don’t look at it any other way. To be able to look at the character, it was a personal journey of really going through it and getting a sense of what it is. We scratched beneath the surface and went deep. The season is gonna be the ultimate for that. It was very arduous for us to shoot some of these scenes. The physicality was demanding, the mental attribute was very demanding, and it will definitely show in epic proportions of how we always shot every show, from day one. I take pride in that, from the perspective of being a producer.

This team isn’t sure what to make of Drew (Beau Knapp), but then he saves your character’s life. How does that shape the relationship moving forward?

BOREANAZ: They’re both servicing each other in a way that reflects where they both are. Saving Jason’s life was really a possibility of maybe Jason having his life ended and not really being saved, but being saved, if that makes any sense whatsoever. What’s stained on him is the toxic evilness that’s there, and it’s physical. There’s a fabrication to it that affects Jason so strongly, and had been before Drew even came on and took that shot. There are so many layers going on in his head, and he’s having trouble with that. This was like, “Boom, let’s go to this next little world. You passed this one little part of the journey of it, now go deeper.” It’s like, “Thanks for that.” It’s like playing Dungeons & Dragons. They’re like, “Okay, you’ve passed a world now. You’re going into a whole other world. And you survived it.” You don’t know what you’re gonna see when you get down this road for Jason Hayes. Survival is really the key to it, but also healing is the key to it. He may heal, but he also may get killed, which is a strength and a sacrifice on the battlefield. We’re not gonna shy away from that. That ultimately may do him in.

When It Comes to the Action Sequences, There Are Zero Shortcuts on ‘SEAL Team’

In the second episode of this season, you have a car bomb with all these injuries that then moves to shooters in a mall. How was it to tackle all that action?

BOREANAZ: We were shooting episodes one and two at the same time. Chris Chulack, the other executive producer and template director, who put the show down and the look of it is just tremendous, is a creative soul. He always likes to shoot in sequence, which I appreciate a lot, but there were moments we couldn’t do that. We shot in Colombia, so you have to shoot out of sequence, production wise. We had to shoot all the L.A. stuff for Colombia, and then go to Colombia and shoot all the Honduras stuff. But shooting those sequences and the intensity of it, there are zero shortcuts on the show. If you came in as a guest star and you thought you’d get away with something, you were D.O.A. You were just gone. You were done. You gotta go the hard way with this show. That’s the only way to do it.

At the Monte Carlo Television Festival, you said you were developing a TV series as a writer, that you could also star in and produce. How far along is that? Is that something you want to try to get to before the end of this year, or would it be next year?

BOREANAZ: I don’t wanna put a time on that. Things can happen very fast in Hollywood. I’ve learned, working in this business for so long, as a creator, producer, director, and lead, I just look at it presently, where I am in the now with it. I will say recently I spent some time in an area where I was visiting some people that gave me insight into the storytelling that I’m doing with this particular piece. That’s not to mention that there are other things that have already come to fruition that I’m working on. I take it one day at a time, one moment at a time. I’m in the now. That’s what I’m doing. So, from where I was, back at the Monte Carlo Festival, to where I am now has been a lot of time for healing, but also a lot of time for fruit bearing, and also a lot of time for storytelling and filming.

With so many shows coming back with revivals, it’s not surprising that the conversation inevitably turns to Bones. Do you think there’s a chance that series could come back in some way? Is that something you would be open to doing?

BOREANAZ: I think the series alone, for what it was at the time, was groundbreaking because it was a crime procedural done in a very, I wanna say, relationship-driven way and very character-driven and not so plot heavy. It was fun to be, I feel, the inception of that. And then, as that progressed to Season 6 and Season 7, and you saw all those other procedurals having fun while they’re investigating, it was like watching this flip in storytelling and plot-driven stuff turn into character-driven stuff. Networks were going, “We want the next Bones. We want it to be this and that.” Okay, well, you really can’t emulate. You can’t get the next Bones, but you can go for something of some similar chemistry, if you have the two right people that are doing it and wanna put the discipline into the drives of the characters like that.

That’s definitely a show that I feel is an easier thing to revisit, if I did, and something that would be fun if it’s a small little hit run, or something. That’s something I would never decline to take on because it would be fun to see where Booth is and where Temperance Brennan is, and those other characters, especially their relationship and how it’s evolved over the years. How is their daughter? What is Booth doing? What is she doing? Is she exploring the caves in some remote area of the world? It would be funny. That type of show and how we shot that show is just so unique to the humor that you really could do anything with it.

David Boreanaz Makes No Promises That His ‘SEAL Team’ Character Won’t Pay the Ultimate Price

SEAL Team is certainly not your first TV show that’s come to an end. Was it a mutual decision to end this series here where you have? Do you feel like the series still had more seasons left? Are you satisfied with where you’ve gone with it?

BOREANAZ: For me, you know, personally, before the writers’ strike happened, I had expressed that this would be my last season on the show, regardless if the show were gonna go on or not. That was something that I decided I just didn’t wanna do because I knew that the character was well-rounded enough and was at a place where we’ve examined him, cut on the sidelines and running the teams from afar, which is just not his personality. That was definitely not something I wanted to do. I wouldn’t fit those shoes. I’m too adventurous and curious, and too much of a leader of an alpha male character. I knew that going in. And then, the writers’ strike happened and months passed by, and it became a mutual decision. I’m happy that we were able to get the final season to put on the mark for this character and say, “Okay, this is how it should be for him.” Quite honestly, I think fans will either like it or be like, “Why would you do that to this character?” The ultimate sacrifice for character like this is that you could possibly be killed on the battlefield. That’s the realistic approach. That’s the authenticity of it. That’s how we’ve always shot the show, from day one. That possibility is there. It may come to fruition, or it may not, but I lean towards the first.