‘SVU’ & ‘Organized Crime’ Crossover Set: Find Out When Benson & Stabler Will Reunite

Law Order SVU Organized Crime Crossover Benson Stabler Reunion Planned
Virginia Sherwood © NBC / Courtesy Everett Collection

Mark your calendar, SVU fans, and we can assure you, this isn’t an April Fool’s Day prank.

The spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime, will premiere on Thursday, April 1, at 10/9c, following a new SVU episode — which also happens to be the one that will reunite former partners Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni). This two-hour crossover will presumably be the first time the characters have seen each other since Stabler quit SVU when Meloni left the series following Season 12 (in 2011).

Now, Stabler fights organized crime after he’s suffered “a devastating personal loss,” NBC teases. “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. Stabler will aim 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.”

Dylan McDermott and Tamara Taylor will also star, though no character details have been released about either’s Organized Crime role.

Fans have been waiting to find out when they’d get this reunion since the Stabler spinoff was announced in March 2020. Then, in December, SVU showrunner Warren Leight and Hargitay both posted screenshots of a virtual table read with Meloni joining the long-running drama’s cast. And in January, Hargitay and Meloni shared photos on set together.

Law & Order Organized Crime Christopher Meloni Pilot Stabler

(Virginia Sherwood/NBC)

Considering Stabler’s abrupt departure from the squad, there’s quite a bit for the former partners to discuss (not even including her promotion to captain and the fact she’s a mother and his new task force). “It’s going to be heavily laden with 10 years of stuff and a lot of emotion, not that it’ll be an emotional scene,” Meloni told TV Insider in July 2020.

Well, the time to see how that all plays out is almost here, and we cannot wait.

Law & Order: Organized Crime, Series Premiere, Thursday, April 1, 10/9c, NBC