After getting canceled for a third time, S.W.A.T. will be ending next month on the 2025 TV schedule. Even though the hope for another season is still very much alive, we also need to come to terms with this being the end. Comments about the finale have me stressed since it will apparently leave fans wanting more, and the showrunner explained why it won’t be a big event episode. However, while I find this all a bit disappointing, it's also understandable.
By the time CBS canceled S.W.A.T. again, the cast and crew were already a few weeks out from filming the finale. So, while it's possible that the episode was initially written to also serve as a series finale, something that a lot of writers do when the future is unknown, don’t expect there to be much change to accommodate the cancellation. Also, unlike most series finales, S.W.A.T. won’t be going too big for 20-Squad’s final on-screen outing, as showrunner Andrew Dettmann told TVLine:
Even if we’re no longer airing each week, we want the viewers to feel that Hondo and 20-Squad will go on, that 20-Squad will always be out there taking down the bad guys and protecting the city of L.A.
This makes sense since 20-Squad will forever be out and about and saving lives across the Los Angeles area, even if it's not on-screen. Plus, this makes it so that if S.W.A.T. manages to pull off another miraculous save, it would be easy to pick up where it left off. That being said, although there are still a handful of episodes left and room for surprises, it sounds like the finale will be your typical S.W.A.T. season finale, which is exciting.
However, I'm not hopeful that there will be any big surprises, such as the return of Lina Esco’s Chris, Alex Russell’s Street, and Kenny Johnson’s Luca. There has been some hope that the three could come back after it was revealed in Russell’s final episode last year that Street was going to ask Chris to marry him. But it seems like the Stris wedding will have to be left to the imagination of the fans.
Filming for Season 8 officially wrapped in March and the cast got emotional reacting to the end. The finale may not have big series finale vibes, but it’s clear that fans will certainly still get emotional knowing that it will likely be the last time they see 20-Squad, or at least, new episodes involving them.
Regardless of how big or small these final episodes of S.W.A.T. are, they will still be big since the cast and crew have poured their hearts into them. It’s going to be a sad day when the finale airs on May 16, but at least fans can always turn to streaming for comfort. New episodes of S.W.A.T. air on Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, and stream the next day with a Paramount+ subscription. The first seven seasons are also streaming for those with a Netflix subscription.
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