David Boreanaz Is ‘Glad’ That ‘SEAL Team’ Is Over, But He’s Proud of Its Legacy

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For seven seasons, SEAL Team followed David Boreanaz‘s Jason Hayes and his team both on high-stakes missions and back home with their loved ones. In October, the CBS-turned-Paramount+ series came to an end.

Now, you’ll be able to relive all of it, with the seventh and final season out on DVD (as well as the complete series) on Tuesday, December 17. The Season 7 DVD has three discs with every episode and 35 minutes of special features, including deleted scenes, a gag reel, and two featurettes, “Seal Team Season 7: Bravos Last Stand” and “Operation Colombia.” The complete series set has 30 discs of all 114 episodes and over five and a half hours of special features, including gag reels, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more. In honor of the releases, TV Insider spoke with Boreanaz to look back on the show, Jason’s ending, and more. Plus, would he do a revival of any sort?

How do you feel about how Jason’s story ended on screen?

David Boreanaz: I mean, it was appropriate for a character like this to, I think, end the way he was supposed to, go out on the battlefield. And what I love about it is in landing the plane and talking to Spencer [Hudnut] and Chris [Chulack] about it and just really thought that putting him on the battlefield and not knowing what really is going to happen next is, I think, where he’s supposed to be. So for me, really, it’s a great moment to see and also to have shot that was really cool. So I think it was perfect. It’s very open-ended. You don’t really know what’s going to happen to him.

When I spoke with Spencer about the finale, he said that he thinks there’s a tragic element to Jason still operating. Do you agree?

Not necessarily. I think that all of these special operators have some sense of tragedy and unfortunate traumatic responses, trauma obviously that they deal with on a daily basis. I don’t think that ever really goes away. So I think that that does stick with them. Is it a little bit less of a burden on him? Yeah, of course. I think the season in itself was probably, in my opinion, just too dark for his character to go through what he went through. And I think it’s a testimony to knowing for myself like, Hey, this was the right time to end it. For me, I had made that decision before the writers’ strike and I’m happy that I decided to say, this is it for me, and I’m glad that the series is over.

Trae Patton / Paramount+

So does that mean you wouldn’t do a movie or a continuation of any kind if the opportunity arose?

I think a movie is definitely is a lot easier to do, but doing a series like this and the amount of work that it took day in and day out, it’s just too much, the pounding mentally and physically. It just really was a burden in a lot of ways. I’m very fortunate and humble to have portrayed the character because I just leave it all out there for our veterans and for those people that have sacrificed for us. And to me, that’s what this series was all about, was giving back and shining light into these dark corners. But a film definitely will be, well, not easy to do, but it would be a lot better on the body, for sure.

So when you look back on the show now as a whole, your work onscreen and behind the camera as a director, what stands out to you?

For me, it’s the realistic, authentic approach that we took the show in. The way we examined every episode and every moment, I can’t tell you enough, and I keep repeating this word and I’m sure people hear, it’s authentic. But when you hear from real veterans and people that are operators and they stop you and they say, thank you for doing what you did, you really have hit the mark as far as showing what not only we do, but what we go through is the biggest award that I could ever imagine to being humble to accept. It to me was a growth of maturity in the level of intensity that you can bring to a character, the level of how I can push myself physically to endure, and also just getting it done and shooting from an executive producer’s perspective, I know how to apply this game to other shows regardless of the budget and the pattern that they want to throw at me. It’s like, I’ll do that times three after going through a show like this. And that just goes down to consistency, discipline, and efficiency, which is really the military way if you really want to look at it. So that, to me, is really what stands out, is giving back and having these people thank me for what they do and what they did. And here I am thanking them. So it’s a real nice give and take.

Is there any other ending that you seriously considered or wanted for Jason at any point?

No, I didn’t. I mean, I obviously at one point had thought, well, maybe this guy should die. And then we don’t want to see his death. We’ve seen him get injured many times. We’ve seen him get shot, which was pretty drastic to see, pretty dramatic. And then we played with the idea of like, Hey, let’s bring him out of the field and stick him in the area with Blackburn [Judd Lormand] and Davis [Toni Trucks] and try to call the plays from the sideline, and that didn’t work out. And for me, I never thought of him as that type of character anyway. He’s too rambunctious, curious, and a bit of a wildfire kind of a guy to sit back and call plays. He has to be in it. So that didn’t work out. So for me, the limited run of a series and taking it to CBS on the network level and having it be a hit for them and then also transitioning over to a streaming platform for two years and making it be a hit for them is quite an accomplishment. I’m very proud of that.

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What Would've Happened in 'SEAL Team' Season 8

Is there anything you didn’t get the chance to do on SEAL Team that you wish you’d had time for?

No, You know what? I don’t really think—Jason and his relationship with Mandy [Jessica Paré] was quite a very interesting one and the one that I really kind of loved from the beginning of the series. Trying to find that spot with him was always difficult. And I think it was difficult because he was so dedicated to his work and dedicated to the sacrifice and dedicated to the job that he did. That’s what made it so complex for him. Does it work, did it work? What happens when he tries, what happens when he doesn’t? I think that’s just the way it is with him and I don’t think that that’ll change. So no, I didn’t see anything that I wanted to do anything more. That’s why I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore.

SEAL Team, Complete Series, Streaming Now, Paramount+