The Law & Order franchise is an institution on the small screen by this point in the 2025 TV schedule, and a recent episode welcomed Desperate Housewives cast alum Jesse Metcalfe to the streets of New York City as a cop. He shared with CinemaBlend that joining a procedural was a goal of his, but there was also a slightly embarrassing moment when he was filming with series regular Reid Scott.
Metcalfe's episode of Law & Order was called "Folk Heroes" and aired on March 25 with a "ripped from the headlines" style of story. The John Tucker Must Die star branched out from his usual kinds of roles to play Sgt. Danny DeLuca, who joined Reid Scott's Det. Vincent Riley on the hunt for the killer of an insurance company CEO.
When I spoke with the actor about his experience, he shared that Law & Order is "not a small production" and that they filmed "all around Lower Manhattan" for two weeks, with shooting in that area of NYC lending "a certain level of authenticity." With as popular as the franchise has been over more than three decades now, I had to ask: was there a crowd of people who stopped to watch them in action? Metcalfe shared:
Honestly, there were. Apparently, when they're shooting in Manhattan, there's always a lot of lookie-loos. But there was one particular scene that we were rehearsing when a small group of young ladies actually yelled my name from across the street. It was one of those moments that was a little embarrassing. [laughs] It was in front of my new castmate, Reid Scott, and our director, Carlos Bernard, who I had worked with previously. Nobody really made a big deal about it, but it was a funny moment.
It wasn't the end of the world for the guest star that some Law & Order spectators recognized him, and he's certainly accumulated enough credits on releases like Desperate Housewives, John Tucker Must Die, and various projects for Hallmark that it makes sense for him to be recognized. Still, it would be fun to see outtakes of filming in which Sgt. DeLuca was addressed as "Jesse Metcalfe."
When I noted that playing the NYPD sergeant was a departure from the kinds of characters he's best known for, Metcalfe revealed:
Oh, absolutely. This is something that I was kind of pursuing. Although I've dabbled in the procedural world, I just feel like it's a really good fit for me, and something I'd like to do more of. I've screened the episode. I screened the episode yesterday, and I just thought, one, that the episode was exceptional, but two, that I was really believable as a New York police sergeant. My family is from the city. My grandfather grew up in Brooklyn. I'm Italian. I'm an East Coast guy having grown up in Connecticut, and I actually went to college at NYU. We were shooting all around NYU. It was a really special moment for me. It's kind of like a homecoming in a lot of ways.
Suffice it to say that Jesse Metcalfe also confirmed that he'd be happy to reprise his role as Sgt. DeLuca if given the chance. Law & Order has a fair amount of cast turnover, so it wouldn't be a shock to see him turn up again. The actor suggested that he would "would love to see the character of Sergeant Danny DeLuca expanded" and maybe "he could end up becoming a detective.
It remains to be seen if Law & Order will bring Jesse Metcalfe back as Sgt. DeLuca, but you can always check out his episode of Season 24 streaming with a Peacock subscription. For new episodes of Law & Order, keep tuning in to NBC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET, ahead of Law & Order: SVU Season 26 as usual. The wait is still on for NBC to announce what the future holds for the show, and I for one am hoping for the best for Law & Order to reach that 25-season milestone that SVU hit just last year.
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