Law & Order returned in the 2025 TV schedule with an ER reunion for Maura Tierney and then a family reunion for Hugh Dancy's ADA Nolan Price, which Dancy put a lot of thought into. While Season 24 is taking a break for a week before returning for a mini crossover with Law & Order: SVU, the show is coming up on the one-year anniversary of Sam Waterston's departure as the iconic Jack McCoy. When I recently spoke with Dancy, he weighed in on Law & Order moving on without McCoy and Scandal alum Tony Goldwyn stepping into Waterston's shoes as the new DA.
Sam Waterston's final episode of Law & Order after hitting the 400-episode milestone the previous season aired back in February 2024, with McCoy falling on the legal sword to tank his own career as DA but save Nolan's in the process. The longtime Distinct Attorney was alive and at peace with his decision when last seen a year ago, and it's not impossible that he'll come back as a guest even if he did scorch the professional earth when he left. (The episode is available streaming with a Peacock subscription.)
Looking back to how the drama said goodbye to McCoy almost exactly one year ago, I asked Hugh Dancy in our recent interview for his thoughts on Sam Waterston's legacy as the character. The Hannibal vet shared:
It's hard for me to assess only because as much as I'm a fan of him as just an audience member myself, I'm also a fan of him now on a personal level as an actor, from having worked with him, which was just such a highlight, not just of the show, but in a bigger sense. But also I just love the man. I'm not alone in that. He's a unique and special guy. [laughs] Whatever he's leaving behind in terms of his work on Law & Order, for me, it's just the fact of having had the good fortune to work with him.
Sam Waterston was one of just two former Law & Order stars who returned for the NBC revival, and he was already an icon of the franchise from his earlier seasons. Is it any wonder that Hugh Dancy was impressed by him over their time together, even if it was only for a couple of seasons?
In fact, Sam Waterston had been the key attorney on the show for so long that there was no saying how Scandal's Tony Goldwyn would fit in as Nick Baxter, McCoy's replacement as DA. I for one was quickly a fan of how the actor fit into the cast, but Nolan wasn't initially a big fan of working with Baxter. Speaking with Dancy, I commented that it's been nice to see them increasingly trusting each other, and he shared:
That's been happening a bit this year, and I'm glad of that, because you can't just have two grown men screaming at each other incessantly. [laughs] But yeah, I think they're warily accepting. Funny talking about siblings – I remember early on when Tony and I first started working together, and I was actually talking to Odelya [Halevi] about it, and about the new dynamic. She said, 'It's funny because you're kind of like brothers.' And I thought, 'Oh, yeah, that's right. That's why they're clashing all the time,' because they really probably have more in common than they don't, and sometimes that can be really difficult.
Price has plenty of brother baggage even without accounting for Baxter, with the most recent episode introducing Another Life's Justin Chatwin as Thomas Price, Nolan's brother. There was also a third Price brother who died years ago, so the sibling-esque bickering between Nolan and Baxter doesn't have any tragedy to it. I noted that Nolan is certainly closer in age to Baxter than he was to McCoy, and Dancy responded:
Clearly closer in age. I'm not saying that they're identical twins, but I think we've got through the initial kind of deeper suspicions, and they're finding more common ground.
Hopefully the series will continue to showcase Baxter not only solidifying his dynamic with Price, but also the other characters. The next new episode, called "Duty To Protect" and airing on February 13, certainly looks like it will bring plenty of drama to the courtroom portion of the plot, complete with Extended Family alum Abigail Spencer crying. Take a look:
Keep tuning in to NBC on Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Law & Order Season 24, ahead of Season 26 of SVU at 9 p.m. ET. Law & Order: Organized Crime previously occupied the 10 p.m. ET hour on Thursdays, but Found Season 2 has since taken the slot since Christopher Meloni's show was moved to Peacock as a streaming original.
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