Entertainment

Why Did Max Thieriot Leave ‘SEAL Team’?

Nairavoice · Nov 2, 2026 · 7 min read

It came as a massive shock to audiences when Clay Spenser was unceremoniously killed off in the back half of SEAL Team‘s sixth season. Max Thieriot’s character had been with the CBS-turned-Paramount+ series from the very beginning and was as much a part of the Bravo Team as anyone else. But all of that changed when Thieriot started balancing his work on SEAL Team with that of his then-new CBS/Paramount+ series Fire Country. And, as it turns out, trying to manage two first responder/military drama shows at once — especially with many large seasons — can’t last forever. Eventually, one of these shows had to go.

Clay Spenser Has a Tough Arc in ‘SEAL Team’ Season 6

At the end of SEAL Team‘s fifth season, Clay was nearly killed on a mission after being hailed on by RPGs. This all came after he made the tough decision to retire from the Bravo Team following this “last mission” to be closer to his family. The season ended with fans wondering if Thieriot would be leaving the show in between seasons, with no closure for Clay’s five-season arc. This is a common trope among network procedurals, and something that could’ve easily recurred here on SEAL Team. Thankfully, that isn’t how things went down, but Clay’s Season 6 arc was just as tragic to watch unfold.

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The Cairo swordsman scene was improvised on the day because Harrison Ford had dysentery.
Raiders was filmed in about 73 days, which was fast even in 1981.
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Bruce Willis was a television comedy actor then, and a long way down the casting list.

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The new season begins with Clay losing his leg and having to retire from active duty. Throughout Season 6, Clay struggles to get his life back together after the last mission and works on his relationship with his wife Stella (Alona Tal) and his son Ben. In fact, by the end of his time on SEAL Team, he and Stella even plan to leave their old life behind and start anew. Along with that, Clay spends his final moments helping a vet named Ben (Joey Pollari) in the episode “Aces and Eights,” where he stops the distressed vet from killing himself and vandalizing a recruitment center.

Though Clay saves Ben from killing himself, he is found holding Ben’s gun by a security guard, who promptly shoots him in the chest. These are the final moments with Clay we see on the show, as he, like Chris Kyle (the real-life inspiration behind American Sniper) before him, used his final moments to save the life of another. Ironically, Clay was once called “American Sniper” by one of Stella’s friends all the way back in Season 1’s “Collapse,” which foreshadows this horrible tragedy.

Max Thieriot Was Doing Double Duty Between ‘SEAL Team’ and ‘Fire Country’

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During SEAL Team‘s Season 6, Thieriot was also working on another ongoing CBS/Paramount+ drama Fire Country, where he plays Bode Leone, a convict firefighter who is forced to return to his hometown (and his family). “At the time, I was fully involved with SEAL Team, so it was hard to imagine being able to go do something else, especially because this ramped up pretty quick,” Thieriot told Collider in an exclusive interview. “It became clear that it wasn’t like SEAL Team was gonna be over and done with, and here’s the next thing I could do, so I really wasn’t sure.”

Unfortunately, that changed somewhere down the line when both Fire Country and SEAL Team were renewed for their second and seventh seasons, respectively. Given that Thieriot’s character on SEAL Team was nearly written off after Season 5, his ultimate demise in the following season wasn’t a surprise. With Fire Country‘s intense workload – 22 episodes a season compared to SEAL Team‘s 12 — it’s no wonder that Thieriot opted to stick with the new series he helped co-create in the first place.

“It really started toward the end of Season 5,” SEAL Team showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TV Insider. “There were some questions about whether Max would be back for Season 6, so the Season 5 cliffhanger [in Mali] was a bit dictated by that. And as Fire Country kept passing each development checkmark, it got clearer and clearer that there was a real possibility that we’d be losing Max at some point … Everyone had talked about how he could do both shows, but it was very clear that that wasn’t the case.” With Fire Country shooting in Vancouver, Canada, and SEAL Team in Los Angeles and other locations across Southern California, it just wasn’t possible for Thieriot to do both.

Max Thieriot’s ‘SEAL Team’ Co-Star Helped Inspire Him To Create ‘Fire Country’

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    Image via CBS</figure>

Fire Country is Max Thieriot’s show in more ways than one, and it’s all thanks to his SEAL Team castmates. Thieriot doesn’t just star in Fire Country, he’s also an executive producer, co-creator, and the initial inspiration for the series. “I was driving to work one day with my buddy A.J. Buckley from SEAL Team, and we were sitting there going back and forth,” Thieriot told James Corden on The Late Late Show. “… And I started telling him about [my experience growing up in a firefighting community], and he was like, ‘Dude, this is a show.’ I’m like, ‘You think?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.'” The more Thieriot explained this idea of a Northern Californian firefighting town and his experience with it, the more people thought he should pursue the project as a series.

“When I started writing it, in the beginning, I wasn’t sure what the route was gonna be,” Thieriot explained to Collider. “In the beginning, my intentions were to try to create this world and pitch it, and then have them make a show, best case scenario.” Thieriot co-wrote the pilot alongside Tony Phelan and Joan Rater, and would later direct the 21st episode, “Backfire.” He had previously directed two episodes of SEAL Team during the show’s third and fourth seasons. But in many ways, Fire Country was the project that Thieriot had been waiting to undertake his entire career, and it only took someone like his SEAL Team co-star (Buckley is also a co-producer on Thieriot’s new series) to push him to make it a reality. And with Season 5 of Fire Country currently going strong, it’s clear to see that Thieriot’s vision for the show has not only flourished, but it’s become one of CBS’ biggest shows.

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