Alex Russell is likely coming back for SWAT Season 8 (but not as Street)

We’re certainly happy to hear that SWAT Season 8 is happening. The bad news is that Season 7 wrote out two OG characters. Street and Luca are out, and it looks like they won’t be back—at least, not as series regulars.

That doesn’t mean the actors can’t come back. As much as we would love to see the actors back on our screens as our favorite characters, we’ll take the actors coming back behind the scenes if that’s the only option.

Alex Russell will likely come back to direct for SWAT Season 8

TVLine reports that there is a chance Alex Russell will return. It won’t be as Street, though. At least, not permanently. There is always a chance he could pop up to give us updates about how things are going since he is running another SWAT team.

Instead, Russell will be back behind the camera if the show has any say about it. There is a chance that he’ll direct an episode (or two?).

Russell has directed three episodes of SWAT so far. His first was back in Season 5, when he directed “Safe House.” He then directed an episode of Season 6, titled “Witness.” Then he returned for what was set to be the final season last year. He directed the 10th episode of the 13-episode season, “SNAFU.” This was after Street left the series, making it clear that there are no hard feelings from the actor when it comes to the way his character was written out.

We hope to see him return both on and off-screen in SWAT Season 8. After all, things aren’t the same without Street. As much as we love that he’s now leading his own team, we need to see his team and Hondo’s team join together for a situation again to see how far he’s come as a leader and to get an update about Chris.