Why did Max Thieriot leave the SEAL team? The *real* reason is revealed

We were heartbroken to say goodbye to Clay Spenser on SEAL Team season 6. But why did Max Thieriot leave SEAL Team and what happened to his character Clay Spenser on the show? Read on to find out.
SEAL Team is a Paramount Plus military drama series created by Benjamin Cavell. The film follows an elite unit of US Navy SEALs known as Team Bravo, who undertake the most dangerous and life-threatening missions worldwide. According to Variety, the show, which previously ran on CBS for four seasons, is currently in its sixth season and was recently renewed for a seventh season in January 2023. Tanya Giles, director of programming at Paramount Streaming, “We look forward to bringing ‘SEAL Team’ fans even more of the series’ deep storylines and thrilling missions with the upcoming seventh season,” said. The cast includes David Boreanaz, Jessica Paré, Neil Brown Jr., A. J. Buckley and Toni Trucks and formerly Max Thieriot.

Thieriot plays Clay Spenser, a Navy SEAL and Bravo Team Special Warfare Operator First Class. Spenser followed in the footsteps of his father, Ash Spencer, a former member of SEAL Team 3. In Season 2, Clay was seriously injured in an accidental bombing in Manila while attempting to train Philippine SEAL forces. Thieriot played Spenser from the first season of SEAL Team, which premiered in September 2017, until his final appearance in Season 6, Episode 8, “Aces and Eights.”

The actor spoke to the Daily Caller in March 2019 ahead of Season 2 and explained why it was important for the show to feel authentic for everyone involved. “Honestly, I think the problem is that that’s the most important thing for us. Whether it’s the technical aspects [of] military tactics or things that are going on right now in this community or whether it’s the personal life stories or the sacrifices that these men and women have made. Now… to make sure that we are as authentic as possible is, by far, the most important thing,” he said in the interview. Thieriot also talked about the tactical and weapons training he and his co-stars received on the show to make it look more realistic. “We had great technical advisors on set, and we still had a few Delta guys, people from various field teams, we had Marine Corps Reconnaissance, we there are guys from all the different branches of the military involved in the show as producers, writers, actors, stuntmen, crew and so now we there is a lot of time to practice,” he added.

Thieriot grew up in a small town in Northern California where “everyone owned guns,” which he said helped familiarize him with the different types of weapons on the show. “I’m a country boy so I’m from a small town in Northern California where everyone owns guns. You know, we grew up hunting and fishing. Obviously it’s not the same gun movement, but I spend a lot of time learning about guns and have been around them since I was eight or nine years old. For me, it was about learning more of some technical stuff,” he also said in the interview.

Why did Max Thieriot leave SEAL Team? Max Thieriot leaves SEAL Team to focus on Fire Country, where he stars and executive produces CBS’s new firefighter show. At first, the actor tried balancing both parts simultaneously, which seemed possible since production on SEAL Team Season 6 took place before Fire Country.

Our sister publication Deadline reports that in May 2022, Thieriot will star in Fire Country and return for the sixth season of SEAL Team. “Obviously it was a juggling act, but luckily we started SEAL Team season six before we started filming episode two of Fire Country, so I was able to tackle right into the gap in between. ,” the actor told Deadline at CBS’s virtual TCA press tour in September 2022. He continued: “It’s crazy, but life is crazy. I put a few kids in there and moved to Vancouver to film a  TV show. But I’m young and I can keep up. I like to stay busy, so it works for me.”

But in the end, Thieriot left SEAL Team to focus solely on Fire Country. “As Fire Country continues to pass each development milestone, it becomes clearer and clearer that there is a real possibility that we will lose Max at some point,” SEAL Team Showrunner Spencer Hudnut told TV Line in November 2022. “It’s not like that.” It wasn’t until maybe even a month after Fire Country was picked up [to series] that it became clear that Max was going to leave. Everyone talks about how he can