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The case has closed on another season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Now that Season 25 is officially over, it’s time to look toward Season 26 and the next era of the NBC drama. But when will Law & Order: SVU Season 26 premiere and who will return from the cast? Well, there’s still an opening from a former cast member and the series already has the perfect replacement.
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Who’s in the Law & Order: SVU Season 26 cast?
No have announced their exits, at the time of writing, so all four main cast members — Mariska Hargitay (Captain Olivia Benson); Ice-T (Sergeant Fin Tutuola; Peter Scanavino (ADA Sonny Carisi, Jr.); and Octavio Pisano (Junior Detective Joe Velasco) — are expected for return for Season 26.
One cast member who could also return is Kelli Giddish, who played former Senior Detective Amanda Rollins from Season 13 to 24. In an interview with Variety in May 2024, Hargitay, who is also an executive producer on Law & Order: SVU, revealed that she’s been pushing for Giddish to return full-time to the series since she was fired by creator Dick Wolf after Season 24. “Kelli is my favorite actor to work with,” Hargitay said. “Kelli is my heart. It’s a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show, but I didn’t have enough there.”
She continued of Giddish’s firing, “I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right. That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.”
It’s unclear at this time whether Rollins will return full time to Law & Order: SVU, however, there has been a spot in the cast ever since Junior Detective Grace Muncy, played by Molly Burnett, left in the Season 24 finale and wasn’t replaced come Season 25, so it’s possible that Rollins could be the cast replacement viewers have needed for the past season.
Law & Order: SVUlaid the groundwork for Giddish’s return in Season 24, Episode 11, “Prima Nocta,” in which Rollins made a guest appearance and helped catch a serial rapist by going undercover. At the end of the episode, Rollins, who has been working as an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Behavior at Fordham University, since leaving the SVU in Season 24, hinted at her desire to return to detective work, to which Benson told her to take time to figure out what she wants from her life before deciding whether coming back to the SVU was right for her.
“So are you saying you don’t want me back?” Rollins says in the episode, to which Benson tells her that she couldn’t have her back even if she wanted to. “I don’t have a desk for you,” Benson says. She continues, “I don’t want SVU to be your safety net. How about you take some time, figure out what makes you happy?”
What is Law & Order: SVU Season 26’s premiere date?
NBC hasn’t announced Law & Order: SVU Season 26’s exact premiere date, at the time of writing. However, the network has confirmed that it will return in the fall of 2024 and keep its 9 to 10 p.m. time slot on Thursday nights. The series will be preceded by Law & Order Season 24, which will air from 8 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays and followed by Found Season 2, which will air from 10 to 11 p.m.
As fans may have noticed, one spinoff, , is missing from the lineup. The series, which was replaced by Found in the 10 to 11 p.m. time slot, will move to Peaco*ck for its fifth season.
As for when SVU’s premiere date will be, we estimate that it will likely be September 26, 2024, based on the premiere dates of past seasons, which have happened in late September.
How many episodes is Law & Order: SVU Season 26?
NBC hasn’t confirmed the episode count for Law & Order: SVU Season 26 yet, at the time of writing, however, it’s expected that the series will return to its usual 22 to 25-episode count for Season 26. Like other primetime shows, the series had a reduced amount of episodes — 13 — for Season 25 due to the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes that delayed production for Season 25 by several months.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is available to stream on Peaco*ck.
For more on Law & Order: SVU, check out the craziest episodes based on real-life cases in the gallery ahead.
