Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is currently prepping to air the first episode of its 17th season. The NBC show is already in production, but this week lead actress Mariska Hargitay revealed the show could breathe new life into the veteran police drama by signing on Taylor Swift later this season. Although Swift is mostly known for her work as a pop/folk/country singer, this isn’t as big of a stretch as you might think.
If you’ve been keeping tabs on Swift over the last several months, you should know that she is in the middle of a high-profile world tour for 1989, an album that has made oodles of dollars for the prolific singer. Hargitay says Swift’s attention is focused on that right now, so a potential Law & Order: SVU gig would happen later this season. But Mariska Hargitay also tells Entertainment Tonight they are in talks and if a deal goes through it will be finalized this December.
We just talked about it. We’re going to wait until the end of the [1989 World] tour to see how it goes. But it’s in the air.
Hargitay and Swift have actually seen quite a lot of one another lately. TV’s badass lady detective played another kickass female in Taylor Swift’s video for the recent single “Bad Blood.” She then reprised the role just a few weeks ago onstage at the MTV Video Music Awards. Since they’ve seen so much of one another lately, it stands to reason that Swift might want to return the favor. It helps that T-Swift actually has plenty of acting credits to her name already, having appeared in The Giver and Valentine’s Day. She has some TV experience, too, having popped up in an episode of New Girl and once on CSI, so an episode of Law & Order: SVU would actually be a pretty good fit.
While Swift won’t be showing up on the drama immediately, Season 17 has already earned a little bit of buzz for an episode about a character who is similar to Robert Durst—the alleged murderer who was the subject of HBO’s popular documentary The Jinx when it hit the schedule earlier this year. The SVU episode will take on an “affluent New Yorker” who is also accused of several murders in a special 2-hour premiere that will definitely be ripped from the headlines.
Other guest stars who are confirmed for Season 17 include Dallas Roberts, Kelli Giddish, Virginia Madsen and Elizabeth Marvel. If you’d like to tune in and see Mariska Hargitay in action, you can check out new episodes of Law & Order: SVU starting on Wednesday, September 23 at 9 p.m. ET. In addition, here’s the rest of the fall TV premiere lineup.
