Trivia / SEAL Team

• Actor Leaves, Character Dies: When Michaela McManus and Michael Irby both took regular roles on other shows and became unavailable for Season 2, their characters were killed off. McManus later made a surprise return in Season 5 as part of a dream sequence.
  • Similarly, when shooting both SEAL Team and Fire Country proved too challenging, Max Theriot was written out by having Clay shot dead by a security guard while he was unfortunately holding a gun that he had just taken from a suicidal veteran.
• Cast the Expert:
  • The show's military advisors, Tyler Grey (ex-Delta), Scott Foxx (ex-SEAL), and Mark Semons (ex-SEAL), pull double duty playing Trent, Full Metal, and Keith, additional members of Bravo Team. Also acting in the series is a former US Army Green Beret, Dan Briggs, also an advisor.
  • Justin Melnick, who plays Brock, Bravo Team's canine handler, is a police canine handler (and Dita's actual owner & trainer).
  • A majority of the stunt crew are veterans and pull double duty as Alpha Team extras; Alpha 1 is ex-Delta and Alpha 2 (Garret Goldan) is an ex-SEAL.
• California Doubling:
  • The episode taking place in Tallinn, Estonia. While there has clearly been some research regarding the locations inside the city, it's quite obvious that the episode has probably been shot in the US with Estonian signs plastered around. Rarely if ever do trucks in Europe have signs saying "Keep x distance" or something similar on the back, nor do they feature "vehicle numbers" on their doors.
  • The Jalalabad episodes are all shot in California convincingly doubling for Afghanistan.
  • Ditto for scenes done in Mexico City. The BTS videos on the show's Twitter feed mention that it's done in Santa Clarita, California.
  • In Season 3, the Serbian setting is actually averted since the cast/crew traveled to Serbia to shoot the scenes there.
• Channel Hop: After four episodes in Season 5, the series went from CBS to Paramount+. The key change in the episode is Jason letting loose a Precision F-Strike.
• Dueling Works: SEAL Team is the last show standing from a group of shows about U.S. special forces that were greenlit at around the same time.
  • With Six, which is another show about Navy SEALs and their missions and personal lives. The only real difference between these shows is that the overseas missions in Six form one continuous narrative, whereas the ones in SEAL Team are episodic.
  • With The Brave. Both shows depicts operators working special forces missions overseas while risking their lives to help fellow Americans go home and protect the country from its enemies.
    • Both shows' first episodes involve rescuing a Western woman who has been captured by terrorists in a foreign land.
    • Moreso with their fifth episodes, which deals with evacuating American VIPs from African countries due to the rocky situations there.
    • Both series also featured the main characters going up against Russian special forces in a race against time in Chinese territory to secure a crashed aircraft containing vital intelligence.
  • Also with Valor, which centers on an Expy of the 160th SOAR and a conspiracy that centers on the failed Somali op.
• Fake American:
  • A.J. Buckley and Jessica Paré are Canadian.
  • Alona Tal is Israeli, although she is a naturalized American.
• Fake Guest Star: Judd Lormand, who plays Lt. Commander Eric Blackburn, appears in every episode of Season 1 while being credited as a guest star.
• The Other Marty: Jim Caviezel was originally cast as Jason Hayes but was replaced by David Boreanaz during shooting of the pilot^note this was initially reported as being due to creative differences, but it was later revealed that Caviezel was delivering a poor performance and producers sent then-CEO Les Moonves dailies to get backing to fire him.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Cerberus is retired from field work because Dita, who plays him, was overstressed from the constant gunfire and explosions on set, leading Justin Melnick (both Brock and Dita's real-life handler) to retire Dita as a working dog.
• Shoot the Money: "Frog on the Tracks" featured stunts involving multiple helicopters and a moving train, so there were lots of lingering aerial shots and shots of the actors talking to each other while in the air to make sure they got their money's worth.
• Typecasting: Michael Irby as Adam. He was in The Unit as a Delta Force operator and this time, he's a SEAL operator.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Justin Melnick was initially hired to be the show's canine trainer and handler, but producers thought he had the right look for a SEAL and cast him as Brock.
  • Season 3 was supposed to have 22 episodes, but the decision was made to end it at 20 episodes due to the coronavirus outbreak in America. The first two episodes of Season 4 were the original finale of Season 3.
  • AJ Buckley confirmed in a Reddit AMA in February 2024 that Season 7 was not supposed to be the end of the show, and plans for Season 8 already existed. Season 7 was rewritten after receiving confirmation it would be the final season so the show would have a conclusive finale.

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