David Ajala & James Badge Dale Talk New ‘Law & Order’ Partnership and ‘Boston Blue’ Crossover Hopes

Law & Order has new partners on hand in Season 26, and David Ajala and James Badge Dale are great together both on and off-screen, as was evident when they stopped by TV Insider’s office on Wednesday, November 11. When we asked about their past costars they’d like to guest on the show, Ajala named someone who’s also now playing a detective: Boston Blue‘s Sonequa Martin-Green. Both Ajala and Dale raved about her.

Martin-Green led Star Trek: Discovery as Michael Burnham, who became captain, and Ajala joined the cast in Season 3 as Cleveland “Book” Booker. Their characters ended up together and, as a flash-forward showed, had a son.

“It’s funny because after doing Star Trek, the different movies, TV things, whatever, and we’re both playing detectives, me here in New York and her in Boston,” Ajala told us in the video above. “So I would love a crossover kind of episode. And then she can bring Donnie, too, Mr. Wahlberg.”

Virginia Sherwood/NBC

But right now, Law & Order fans are getting used to this new partnership onscreen, as are the stars. They didn’t meet under the best of circumstances. It “was not smooth,” Ajala agreed. “It’s in the middle of grief and heartache, so it had to feel uncomfortable.” Calvino (Dale) came in to investigate after Walker’s (Ajala) partner Riley (Reid Scott) was killed.

“What did you think of me?” Dale asked Ajala.

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“Honestly, do you know what makes me laugh? I was thinking about during one of the takes when we were shooting, and you know, sometimes how we just riff and we had a little moment, and we were ad-libbing, and I was like, ‘I don’t like the way you do da, da, da.’ I was like, ‘I don’t like your face,'” Ajala recalled.

“That was a good one. I didn’t have an answer for that,” Dale noted. “I was like, ‘Wow.'”