The end of the 2021-2022 TV season is coming for all nine shows of the Dick Wolf TV universe, and now NBC has officially renewed the last two that hadn’t already received orders for more seasons. Just one day after the three FBI shows were renewed in a big way, Law & Order and Law & Order: Organized Crime are officially coming back after their upcoming season finales. Special Victims Unit had already been renewed through Season 24 years ago. This is news for fans to celebrate following the latest crossover!
The new renewals will bring Law & Order: Organized Crime back for Season 3 and Law & Order back for its second revival season and 22nd season overall. There are no details just yet about which members of the cast will or won’t be back next season – which will also include SVU Season 24 – but the Wolf Entertainment Twitter account confirmed that all three will be back in the fall. After the Law & Order revival premiered back in February in the 2022 TV schedule as opposed to September 2021 like SVU and OC, the confirmation of all three returning in the fall is also worth celebrating for L&O franchise fans.
SVU’s renewal for Season 24 actually came all the way back in February 2020, when NBC handed down massive three-season renewals for the longest-running L&O show as well as all three One Chicago series. At the time, SVU was halfway through Season 21, when fans had no idea whether Christopher Meloni would ever reprise his role as Elliot Stabler to rejoin Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson, let alone star in his own spinoff, and nobody could have guessed that Law & Order would return for Season 21 with members of the original cast.
The Law & Order and OC renewals come less than a week after the franchise’s latest crossover, with a kidnapping case that started on SVU before Benson and Velasco crossed over to OC to help Stabler’s team find the missing girl. It was a two-parter that I’d say set a new standard for L&O crossovers, although the original series has been notably missing from any crossover events.
It’s certainly true that the ties between SVU and OC are the strongest in the franchise thanks to the iconic Benson/Stabler partnership, although Law & Order showrunner Rick Eid confirmed to TVLine that Hargitay will appear in the upcoming Season 21 finale. Hargitay previously said that she was “excited” about the prospect of a crossover including all three L&O shows, although the original series has stood well enough on its own with SVU and OC so far.
The renewals for OC and Law & Order – which come as no surprise – complete the slate of Wolf Entertainment shows that will return in the 2022-2023 TV season. This means more seasons of Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago P.D., FBI, FBI: Most Wanted, FBI: International, and Law & Order: SVU as well as the original series and OC. Of course, all nine of those shows are close to their ends in the 2021-2022 TV season, so be sure to check out our 2022 spring finale schedule for when these and the rest of network TV’s biggest finales will air.
