Why Max Thieriot Didn’t Return for ‘SEAL Team’ Final Season — And Who Series Boss Wanted Back

Meredith Jacobs October 7, 2024, 1:00 pm

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Max Thieriot in 'SEAL Team' — Paramount+

SEAL Team said goodbye to a few characters over its seven-season run, which ended on Paramount+ with the October 6 series finale, but the one that still hurts the most is Clay Spenser, with Max Thieriot moving over to Fire Country.

His death — as he was trying to help a vet at Ray (Neil Brown Jr.) and Naima’s (Parisa Fakhri) center — reverberated with the rest of Bravo throughout the rest of the sixth season as well as all of the seventh. But we could have still seen him again, in a flashback or some other way. Executive producer Spencer Hudnut, however, tells TV Insider he didn’t even try to get Thieriot back for the final episodes.

“Truthfully, it was so difficult just keeping Max to finish his work Season 6 that I was not going to even try to open that can of worms,” he explains.

However, he notes, “Clay exists. Clay hangs over the season for sure. I mean, he’s obviously inspiring Sonny [A.J. Buckley] in a lot of ways and he’s haunting Ray on some levels. And I do think we pay honor to Clay in the finale, through Stella [Alona Tal] and through Sonny’s actions. I think even in death, Clay really helped Sonny become the best version of himself. And so, to me, that was enough.”

What Would've Happened in 'SEAL Team' Season 8, Plus Revival Chances

Hudnut hadn’t realized it would be the final season until well into breaking it; he says he found out around the ninth script. If the producers had known earlier, “I’m sure we would’ve gone down different rabbit holes and brought people back from the past,” he says. Among the possibilities? Vic (Lucca De Oliveira), who was briefly with Bravo in Season 3 until the others stripped him of his trident when he was willing to let Ray take the fall for an error he made.

“When our guys are so struggling with what comes after operating, a guy whose trident they took could maybe have an impact on them,” Hudnut explains. “But 10 episodes is such a small amount of time. I mean, I’m getting a lot of messages on social media about just introducing a new character, and people are upset about that. So to bring in people from the past when every moment needs to be so valuable…”

Would you have liked to see Clay one last time on SEAL Team? If so, how? Let us know in the comments section below.

SEAL Team, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Paramount+