Law & Order has gone through some big shakeups over the hiatus already, despite the Season 21 finale not ending on a cliffhanger with the fates of any characters in jeopardy. Anthony Anderson, who was one of the original series cast members who returned for the revival, left the cast as Det. Kevin Bernard after just one season. Now, the long-running show has found Anderson’s replacement: Supergirl alum Mehcad Brooks has joined the cast of Law & Order for Season 22.
Mehcad Brooks has been cast as a detective in Season 22, according to TVLine, although further details about his character (including the name) are not yet available. The actor is best known for his role as James Olsen from the Supergirl series that started on CBS before moving over to The CW. The character went on to become a superhero in his own right, but Brooks left as a series regular in the fifth season. He didn’t depart with any bad blood, however, as he returned for the series finale in 2021.
Law & Order will be Brooks’ first major television credit since the end of Supergirl, although he did have a role in the Mortal Kombat film that released in 2021. The actor also has plenty of TV experience outside of the superhero sphere, including runs on Necessary Roughness, True Blood, and Desperate Housewives. Brooks can also join the group of stars who have played more than one character in the nine-show Dick Wolf TV universe. He appeared in a Season 13 episode of Law & Order: SVU episode back in 2011.
Although there are no details available about Mehcad Brooks’ character (and the actor hasn’t commented on his casting at the time of writing), he joins a cast that built a strong foundation in the show’s first season since the initial cancellation in 2010. Sam Waterston was recently confirmed to return for Season 22, to guarantee that Law & Order would not lose both of its returning stars after just one revival season. He’ll be back as District Attorney Jack McCoy when the show picks up again in the fall.
Also returning is Jeffrey Donovan as Det. Frank Cosgrove, who presumably will be the partner of Mehcad Brooks’ new detective character, as Bernard was his partner in Season 21. Camryn Manheim (who has also played multiple characters within the Wolf TV universe) will be back as Lt. Kate Dixon, filling the role originally occupied by S. Epatha Merkerson’s Anita Van Buren. (Merkerson is busy over on Chicago Med.) On the “law” side of Law & Order, Hugh Dancy’s Nolan Price and Odelya Halevi’s Samantha Maroun are the ADAs working under McCoy. (You can rewatch Season 21 streaming with a Peacock subscription.)
Although Law & Order is confirmed to return to its 8 p.m. ET time slot on Thursdays on NBC in the fall ahead of Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime, the network has not yet revealed a premiere date. Mehcad Brooks’ casting fills in a blank during the wait for its return. If you want to revisit his best-known TV role in the wait for Season 22, you can find all six seasons of Supergirl with a Netflix subscription.
