NBC Announces Christopher Meloni's Spinoff Law & Order: Organized Crime Will Premiere This Fall
Detective Elliot Stabler is officially returning to the New York Police Department!
On Tuesday, NBC revealed the name of the upcming spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime, in which Christopher Meloni reprises his role as the beloved detective.
The show will follow Stabler as he returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after suffering a "devastating personal loss" of his own, NBC announced.
As Stabler swings into action, he will have to adapt to how much the times have changes since he left the force a decade ago. Fans will get to 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," according to NBC.
The series will premiere this fall and will air on Thursdays at 10 p.m., following Law & Order: SVU. Stabler and his new role with the force will be introduced in the season 22 premiere of SVU.
Meloni's return to the franchise was first announced in March. The spinoff has already received a 13-episode order.
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Dick Wolf, Law & Order mastermind, is behind the show and will executive produce alongside Arthur W. Forney and Peter Jankowski. This is the first show to come out of the five-year deal Wolf signed with Universal Television last month, for a rumored nine-digit figure.
This will be the first time Meloni, 59, will be playing Stabler since leaving Law & Order: SVU back in 2011 after contract negotiations broke down. He was an original cast member when the franchise premiered in September 1999, and he earned a lead actor in a drama series Emmy nomination for his work on the show in 2006. Meloni’s chemistry with Mariska Hargitay, as Stabler’s partner, Det. Olivia Benson, helped turn the show into an instant hit.
Craig Blankenhorn/NBCU Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni in Law & Order: SVU
Stabler was written off in the show after its season 12 finale, though wasn’t killed off, retiring from the police force instead. Since then, Meloni has gone on to guest in a number of shows, including Pose and Surviving Jack, as well as lead the SyFy series Happy!.
In February, Law & Order: SVU was renewed through its 24th season. Its current record-breaking 21st season displaced Gunsmoke and the flagship Law & Order series as the longest-running live-action primetime television show.
