When Sony Pictures Television surprised S.W.A.T. fans with Exiles, a spinoff of the CBS cop drama, it emerged that Shemar Moore was the only original star signed up to star, disappointing many loyal fans and some of Moore’s co-stars.
The ten-part series, which is based around Moore’s Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson character, is being launched without an “anchor” broadcaster after a “frantic” dealmaking process.
S.W.A.T stars including Jay Harrington, who played Sgt. David ‘Deacon’ Kay, and David Lim, who played Officer Victor Tan, were among those caught off guard by the announcement. Harrington was sanguine about the move but admitted it “stung”, while Lim used the same phrase.
However, Keith LeGoy, Chairman, Sony Pictures Television, which produces the show, admitted that there is a chance for some of the former S.W.A.T stars may end up on Exiles.
“There is a S.W.A.T family and that family is important. We would love to have other family members involved in some way, whether it’s all of them all of the time, some of them some of the time, or something in between. That’s something that we are still figuring out,” he said at the Banff TV Festival.
LeGoy, who was promoted to the job in January, said that the company is looking at the series, which was announced at the LA Screenings, to take advantage of the thousands of international buyers that were in town, like a feature film. “We’re going to take that risk on ourselves because we believe in our capabilities.”
He admitted that it could sell the show to one global streamer or broadcasters territory by territory including in the U.S. “Is there risk? Yes. Did we acknowledge that risk and then kind of embrace it? Yeah. This business was founded 100 and something years ago, on people taking risks on their creative judgment, and on their kind of ability to finance their creative vision in whatever way. I think sometimes we’ve gotten a little too risk averse in this business, we’ve got a little too fear based, and sometimes you need to run towards something which is a little bit scary. But, to be honest, we’re much more excited by the opportunity than we are scared of the risk.”
