‘Law & Order: SVU’ Season 22 Could See More Returning Faces Than Stabler

Here Are Their Stories

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Newsletter:

What a difference six months make: New York is “a city struggling to return from a harrowing pandemic and months of demonstrations and political fallout after George Floyd…a city that has lost faith in the NYPD and the DA’s office,” Law & Order: SVU executive producer Warren Leight says.

The drama’s 22nd season opens with an assault in Central Park that “quickly turns into a racially volatile situation, and [the unit] confronts how their own racial bias affects their judgment.” After a case about domestic violence, Episode 3 turns to what happens after extended social isolation and quarantine due to COVID-19 — or, says Leight, “how close people get to their breaking points.”

(Virginia Sherwood/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

On the bright side, after 10 years apart, onetime SVU detective Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) visits his former partner, now-captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay), as a lead-up to Meloni’s 2021 spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime.

Happily for fans, there’s even more nostalgia in the offing. Says Leight: “We hope to bring back some [more] past regulars this season.”

Law & Order: SVU, Season 22 Premiere, Thursday, November 12, 9/8c, NBC