Almost a decade after he left Law & Order: SVU, Christopher Meloni is bringing Elliot Stabler back to New York City in Law & Order: Organized Crime. Stabler was last seen in the season 12 finale, and it was revealed that Stabler retired from the police force the next season. The 59-year-old spilled some Law & Order: Organized Crime scoop during an interview on SiriusXM’s The Jess Cagle Show.
Stabler will be a changed man when we meet him again in the SVU spinoff. He said that there will be a “mellowing” in how Stabler does his job. “I think he’s in a good place now with his family,” the actor continued. “I think he’s at a much better place with himself vis-à-vis the world. I think where we’re going to find him though, however, because he hasn’t been working in New York, NYPD in New York, I think he’s going to be coming back into a world that, I think as we’re all experiencing right now, has really changed with policing and the citizenry. It’s a new day and there are new ways of going about things. I think those are all issues to address in the show and I think it’s going to be a challenge for Elliot, one that I think he’ll meet.”
When asked whether or not Elliot has grown or regressed since fans last saw him, Christopher said, “Regression I don’t find particularly interesting. I always thought of Elliot, as flawed as he may have been, I think his heart was always in the right place. I think it was his sense of injustice that brought out the worst aspects of him.”
With Christopher back in the Law & Order universe, a reunion between Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) is inevitable. The actor is set to appear in the Law & Order: SVU season 22 premiere before branching off into his own show. He’ll still be in New York City, but he’ll be leading an NYPD organized crime unit.
NBC’s official description revealed that Stabler returns to the NYPD after a “devastating personal loss. However, 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. Throughout the series, we will 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.”
During his interview The Jess Cagle Show, Christopher revealed that he hadn’t started filming yet due to coronavirus pandemic. He hasn’t seen a script yet, but he knows the writers are currently working on scripts. Law & Order: Organized Crime is set to premiere in fall 2020.