The cast of the long-gestating SVU spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime is starting to take shape.
American Horror Story veteran Dylan McDermott is set to star on the spinoff alongside Christopher Meloni, who is reprising the role of Elliot Stabler in the new series.
McDermott shared the news of his casting on Instagram, alongside the following photo:
“New York here I come!” he captioned the post, which also tagged Meloni, NBC, and the Organized Crime Instagram page.
The news went down a treat with fans of McDermott in the comments of his post.
“Awwwwwww,” said one excited fan, adding:
“freaking out over here, this news just made my day, my two faves together.”
“Yay, said another. “Exciting Television 📺 coming…Thank You.”
McDermott has had a string of big TV roles, including the aforementioned American Horror Story, as well as shows such as Stalker, Hollywood, and The Politician.
The good news is that his role is a series regular on Organized Crimes, but the bad news is that no details have been released about his character.
It’s possible NBC wants fans to tune in when the show premieres to learn everything there is to know about the character.
There’s no telling what other big names are attached to the project as of yet, but we know that the show is very much in the works.
Meloni and his former SVU scene partner Mariska Hargitay have been keeping fans up to speed behind the scenes of the show that was supposed to launch late last year.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 and leadership changes behind the series scuttled those plans, but at least we know the project is moving ahead.
Here is the logline from NBC:
The drama features Christopher Meloni reprising his beloved role as Elliot Stabler, who returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss.
However, the city and police department have changed dramatically in the decade he’s been away, and he must adapt to a criminal justice system in the midst of its own moment of reckoning.
Throughout the series, we will follow Stabler’s journey to find absolution and rebuild his life, while leading a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.
Meloni was the co-lead on SVU until 2011 when he abruptly exited the series due to a contract dispute, meaning that fans didn’t get much of a goodbye for Elliot.
That’s largely why there has been so much interest in the series. The character has been gone for so long, and it will be interesting to see how he and Olivia work together when they reunite to crack a case.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions about how he left, why the silence vis-à-vis Olivia Benson,” Christopher revealed on The Talk last summer.
“I think, in real terms, society, and what we are dealing with in society, has changed dramatically. So, I think you have to address that. And, I think the person Elliot was, I think we all evolve. I think all those things are going to be put into play.”
We’ve been given a string of behind-the-scenes looks at the new show from both Hargitay and Meloni, so maybe McDermott will join in to give fans even more content from the show.
A new premiere date has not been narrowed down yet, but given that NBC has been slowly announcing its premieres for the second quarter of the year, we should find out any day now.
The original plan was to pair it up with SVU, but with SVU already in the middle of airing its current season, it’s possible we could be waiting until the season is over and NBC could give us a year-round dose of the Law & Order franchise.
The franchise is expanding, with NBC previously announcing another spinoff titled Hate Crimes, but after months of waiting to find out what was going on with it, it was moved to Peacock due to concerns over the language.
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.