'Law & Order: SVU' Showrunner Hopeful Chris Meloni Will Return to Series

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit fans may be slightly closer to seeing their long-awaited dream of Christopher Meloni returning to the long-running procedural as Detective Elliott Stabler. Showrunner Warren Leight told TVLine that although negotiations for the return would be "above my pay grade," it's a very real possibility.

"Look: I assume that if some year, some decade, couple decades from now, we get to the last SVU, [Meloni] would have to come back before we do the last episode or before the show signs off."

Leight quickly added, "However, I don't think we're at that point in the show's run."

His remark makes Meloni's potential appearance seem more plausible than it has in the past, where it was mainly viewed as an abstract idea fans would do anything to see. Meloni left SVU in 2011 after protracted talks about his contract broke down. On-screen, Stabler retired from the New York City Police Department off-screen at the start of Season 13.

Meloni wrote on Twitter in December 2018 that he had "zero plans" to take part in the then-airing Season 20. However, a source close to the actor told TVLine this week that he "would very much be interested in returning for a five- or six-episode arc when the series ultimately comes to an end to give fans some closure."

Leight warns that bringing Stabler back to SVU wouldn't be as easy as fans think. "It would be tricky, because it's now been eight years since the characters were seen together," he said. "So how'd they get in touch? We haven't seen it. Where has he been? How do you explain that? There are storytelling challenges to it."

That said, the executive producer added, "It would seem to me that someday Meloni's character could come back."

After he left SVU, Meloni has starred in Happy!, Underground and Surviving Jack, and has appeared in roles on The Handmaid's Tale, True Blood, the Wet Hot American Summer franchise and Pose.

Season 21 of the Mariska Hargitay-led series, which kicks off Thursday, Sept. 26 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC, will make it the longest-running live-action series in TV history.

Photo credit: Bobby Bank / Contributor / Getty