Law & Order: SVU may have promoted one actor to series regular status and added a new character, but that doesn't mean there's no room for Kelli Giddish to return as Amanda Rollins in Season 26. Just under a month before the hit drama's return in the 2024 TV schedule, executive producers have revealed that not only will there be more of Giddish this season, but she has a new role with the NYPD that makes a lot more sense than how she was written out in the first place.
While Giddish has not been a series regular on SVU since she was written out back in Season 24, she has made guest appearances since, and Season 26 is set to feature more of her. Executive producer Julie Martin and EP/showrunner David Graziano spoke with TVLine about what to expect, with Martin confirming:
Rollins is definitely coming back to the show. She’s coming as a guest star, and she’s going to make a bunch of appearances throughout the season.
Even though "a bunch of appearances" isn't going to be quite as satisfying as series regular or recurring status for fans who have been missing Rollins, the news is definitely worth celebrating. When the character last returned in Season 25, she was adrift in her career after her gig as a adjunct professor at Fordham didn't work out and seemed to be seriously considering returning to the NYPD after pitching in on a Special Victims case.
While that did not result in Rollins returning to Benson's squad for Season 26, but SVU has a job in store for her that seems much more in line with her character than the teaching job. David Graziano previewed that she'll be working with the NYPD's Intelligence Unit, but it's not the same kind of Intelligence Unit as Chicago P.D.'s elsewhere on NBC. The showrunner explained:
[It] is very different from the Intelligence Unit anywhere else, because the Intelligence Unit in New York has cops stationed in almost every country in the world. And so, Rollins is going to be traveling a lot as part of that job.
If anything, this new job for Rollins sounds more like what took Law & Order: Organized Crime's Stabler away from New York (and out of Benson's life) for a decade than what the Intelligence Unit of Chicago P.D. gets up to. I'm on board, especially since her decision to leave Special Victims for a teaching job when she had no teaching experience never really made sense to me. Now, there's going to be a valid reason why we don't see or hear from Rollins for stretches of time.
And she definitely won't be pulling a Stabler and going radio silent on the people she's separated from when traveling, as the SVU bosses confirmed that Rollisi will still be happily married parents of three. The big change will be that Carisi learns how to parent on his own while Rollins is out of town, and it's not all going to happen off-screen. Graziano previewed:
We’ll see Carisi and his daughter get involved in something together that they’ll kind of have to work their way out of.
Who else still loves seeing the Rollins girls officially referred to as Carisi's daughters? He was a father figure to Jesse and Billie long before he married their mother, and it's all so sweet that I just hope that whatever one of the girls is involved with in Season 26 isn't too serious.
Whatever SVU has in store for the Rollisi family in light of the many upcoming guest appearances from Kelli Giddish, the wait for the show to return is nearly over. Season 26 of Law & Order: SVU premieres on Thursday, October 3 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, between Law & Order at 8 p.m. ET and Found at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit earlier seasons of the show streaming with a Hulu subscription and/or a Peacock Premium subscription now.
