Christopher Meloni Teases LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME and the Benson-Stabler Reunion - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

Christopher Meloni Teases LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME and the Benson-Stabler Reunion

July 7, 2020 by  

Law and Order: Organized Crime Chris Meloni

LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT
Pictured: Christopher Meloni as Det. Elliot Stabler

Nearly a decade after Christopher Meloni left LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT, he’s set to reprise his Elliot Stabler character on the franchise’s latest spinoff, LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME. And while the actor had been consistent in saying he would consider a possible guest starring return to the series he spent 12 seasons on, he acknowledged in a new interview that the spinoff came out of left field.

“It truly came about by [LAW & ORDER boss] Dick Wolf calling and saying he wanted to discuss a project,” Meloni told The Post. “I was like, ‘Oh, really? OK.’ I was shocked. I never thought this was going to happen, but the circumstances for me changed. So ‘yes’ became the correct answer.”

“Dick gave me a general brushstroke of the unit that Elliot will be a part of,” he continued. “The whys, what fors, what brings him back to the fold, and where he’s been.” (He, however, declined to elaborate on the “devastating personal loss” the show’s logline teased.)

Originally, the plan was to slowly introduce Stabler (and his family) back into the larger LAW & ORDER universe, but COVID-related shutdowns derailed the storyline, at least temporarily.

“We heard distant thunder about Chris Meloni coming back in the fall,” SVU showrunner Warren Leight previously said on the official SVU podcast, “Squadroom.” “We were going to lay a little groundwork for that. We were going to see Kathy Stabler come back, very upset—her son has been rolled by a team of ne’er-do-wells and may have been drugged.”

“What had happened to the Stabler family after Elliot both left SVU and apparently left them?” Leight continued. “We were going to lay some groundwork down in anticipation of Elliot’s return, of course, with his own series. We had the sense that the first episode of [SVU] next year was going to bring Elliot back.”



When production is able to safely resume, LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED crime will be airing back-to-back on Thursday nights. And though Meloni will be leading up his own show, he implied the upcoming reunion with Elliot’s former partner, Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay)—who, in his absence, moved up in the ranks to become the captain at the 1-6—could lead to a throughline between the two shows. (Stabler retired off-screen after a justified shooting at the end of season 12 when Meloni left the series, and, as far as viewers know, cut off communication with everyone from his old squad.)

“Benson and Stabler are inextricably linked, locked and connected,” Meloni explained. “I think there is truly and deeply a worthwhile, inherent drama in exploring that relationship and the complexity of how Stabler left—the unresolved emotions both characters feel and how the fans feel…It almost feels that we won’t do one or two [crossover] episodes and move on our merry way.”

“I just think there will always be possibilities there,” he continued. “People will always be hungry to see how we interact and how that dynamic has changed.”

LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME, Thursdays, 10/9c, NBC

RELATED:

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.

Comments Off on Christopher Meloni Teases LAW & ORDER: ORGANIZED CRIME and the Benson-Stabler Reunion

Comments

Comments are closed.