LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT and ORGANIZED CRIME Bosses Share How They’ve Crafted a Shared Universe
May 27, 2021 by Marisa Roffman
Filed under Law & Order, Law & Order: Organized Crime, SVU
LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT — “Return of the Prodigal Son” Episode 22007 — Pictured: (l-r) Christopher Meloni as Detective Elliot Stabler, Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson — (Photo by: Christopher Del Sordo/NBC)
As LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT was finishing out its (COVID-impacted) milestone 21st season, a bombshell dropped: NBC had ordered a new L&O series, ORGANIZED CRIME, to be led by former SVU star Christopher Meloni, reprising his role as Elliot Stabler.
Given Meloni’s importance to the first dozen years of SVU’s run—and with his former on-screen partner, Mariska Hargitay, still on SVU, leading up the series as now-Captain Olivia Benson—immediately there were questions about how the two shows might intersect. While, historically, the L&Os were contained to their own show worlds (minus the occasional crossover), in recent years, executive producer Dick Wolf had crafted an entire combined universe with the ONE CHICAGO shows and the growing FBI franchise.
