Contains spoilers for “S.W.A.T.” Season 8, Episode 2 — “Gang Unit”

Backdoor pilots are as common as dandelions, and the resurrected-from-cancellation “S.W.A.T.” might have been trying to conjure one up for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The titular team of this episode definitely has star power to spare, and “Gang Unit” sees the team spend time with them when a wave of violent crime hits Los Angeles. This set of drug-money-motivated stash house invasions causes a power struggle between Hondo (Shemar Moore) and the head of the LASD, but the two teams buckle down and work together. It becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse when the mysterious killers begin to murder their witnesses. Soon enough, it transpires that the problem’s coming from inside — and dirty cops are leading the charge while trying to feign innocence.

With such a heavy focus on the cocky LASD, who don’t quite get Hondo’s goat here, they seem like an easy target for a spin-off series. It would certainly give viewers a different point of view on life in the force. And it also wouldn’t be the first time that fans have wondered if a potential “S.W.A.T” spin-off might stem from another crimefighting unit in Los Angeles. While the series remains spin-off-free, and CBS has no announcements about adding any to the show’s roster at press time, hope continues to spring eternal among fans that there will one day be a new show launching from the original.

In the past, Reddit-based “S.W..A.T” fans have speculated about Season 4, Episode 7, “Under Fire” being a failed backdoor pilot for the Los Angeles firefighters it showcases. While that would definitely put “S.W.A.T.” in the same league as the One Chicago dramas, it looks like that’s not the case. “Wasn’t planned that way! We’d partially broken a version of that story in S3, which got cut short by Covid, then came back to it in S4,” a member of the show’s writing team, u/SWATWriter, later declared.

As for pilots that haven’t been launched yet, “S.W.A.T.” fans have expressed hope that someday Jim Street’s (Alex Russell) Long Beach unit will anchor a spin-off. The character left during Season 7 and is clearly missed. u/FromMiddleEarth, wrote that Dom Luca (Kenny Johnson, another character who left the show in Season 7), could lead his own spin-off, possibly in a mentorship role running a police academy.

While the original “S.W.A.T.” had one backdoor pilot — “The Running Man,” which wasn’t picked up — it launched off of a series called “The Rookies.” With that in mind, the rebooted version of “S.W.A.T.” has a rich television legacy behind it. Don’t be surprised if it adds to that lineage with a spin-off show of its own.