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Kenny Johnson returns to SWAT: Twitter fans rejoice


Kenny Johnson plays Dominique Luca on SWAT
Actor Kenny Johnson returns to CBS’s SWAT as Officer Dominique Luca. Pic credit: @thekennethjohnson

Kenny Johnson, the actor who plays Dominique Luca on CBS’s crime drama, SWAT, returned to the show last night after a long absence.

Dominque Luca, a member of LAPD’s SWAT Team led by Daniel “Hondo” Harrelson Jr. (Shemar Moore), joined the team on last night’s episode of the show (Season 3, Episode 13), titled Ekitai Rashku.

Luca, a SWAT officer, who is the driver of the SWAT transport truck, Black Betty, last appeared on the show in Episode 6, titled Kingdom. Fans have been missing the friendly and easy-going officer whose grandfather, Jack Luca, was one of LAPD’s first SWAT officers in the ’70s.

On last night’s action-filled episode, the SWAT team escorted an extradited fugitive to local police in Japan, but the fugitive escaped from custody in Tokyo.

The team went on a manhunt in Tokyo to find him.

Johnson took to Twitter to announce his return

Kenny Johnson took to Twitter last night to announce his return to the show after missing several episodes in Season 3.

He also thanked fans for giving him a warm welcome back to the show.

Fans had, of course, been expecting Johnson’s return as Dominique Luca after the official Twitter handle run by the show’s writers (@SWATWritersRoom) posted a message last week confirming that he would return to the screen this week.

Fans react on Twitter

Fans were excited to see Kenny Johnson back on the show as SWAT officer Dominique Luca, and many took to Twitter to express their pleasure.

Fans had been inquiring about Johnson’s absence from SWAT

Hundreds of Johnson’s fans took to social media to inquire after they noticed that Officer Dominique Luca was missing from consecutive episodes of the show after Episode 6.

The show creators took note of fans’ inquiries and explained that Officer Luca’s absence was due to health issues. They said that the SWAT officer was receiving treatment for hip and back problems.

In Season 3, Episode 9, titled Sea Legs, Chris Alonso (Lina Esco) expressed concern about Luca and Jim Street (Alex Russel) told her that Luca was “indestructible” and that he would be back soon.

David “Deacon” Kay (Jay Harrington) then went on to explain that it was easy for a younger person to bounce back from injury but when you hit the age of 35,  it starts to get harder to recover from physical injury.

However, fans still wanted to know why Johnson himself was absent and many expressed concern that the 56-year-old actor wasn’t returning to the show. Others feared that his absence might have been due to real-life health problems.

Some even speculated that he could be one of the masked contestants on Masked Singer Season 2.

Why was Kenny Johnson absent from the show?

Although no official explanation was given for Johnson’s absence, it didn’t appear to be due to ill health, as some fans feared. During his absence from the show, Johnson continued to post photos showing him looking happy and healthy to his social media pages, including Twitter and Instagram.

Monsters & Critics previously explained that Johnson’s absence was likely due to scheduling conflict and that he was possibly filming elsewhere. His IMDb page showed that he had two projects in the works: the horror movies Howl and Don’t Look There.

SWAT airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on CBS

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Britt
Britt
4 years ago

I love this guy S.W.A.T would not be the same without him. Just like Thomas Gibson. Shemar knows what I’m talking about.

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