Fan-Favorite ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Character Confirmed to Return in Season 22

A beloved Law & Order: SVU alum is marking her return to the NBC crime drama! Tamara Tunie, also known as Medical Examiner Melinda Warner, will make her highly-anticipated return to the NBC series’ 22nd season. Tunie joined the series in Season 2, and while she hasn’t always been a regular cast member, she’s made numerous appearances throughout the cop drama’s iconic long run. iHeart Radio Morning Show host Elvis Duran, who will make a guest appearance as the dead body in the upcoming season gave fans a sneak peek into the episode on his Instagram.

In the snaps, Duran is seen laying on the metal table while stars Ice T, Mariska Hargitay, and Tamara Tunie pose for selfies with his seemingly lifeless body. “It’s actually very relaxing while you’re ‘on the slab’…until these guys start f’n with you. [Mariska Hargitay] [Ice-T] and special thank you to [Tamara Tunie] for pulling up the sheet to keep my nippies warm,” he wrote in the caption, along with the hashtag SVU. He also said the air date for the episode is to be discovered.

While it’s not too sure the purpose Tunie’s role is supposed to play in the episode, showrunner Warren Leight gave some insight to TVLine. “Thrilled to welcome back Tamara Tunie to our third episode, ‘Remember Me in Quarantine’, a story of four college students quarantined in an apartment, whose lives are forever changed by the pandemic,” Leight revealed.

He also shared how the new season will tackle conversations on police brutality and racism in light of 2020’s protests supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement and the death of George Floyd. The season premiere, “Guardians and Gladiators” will follow the Manhattan SVU team who arrives at a crime in Central Park where a Black man has already been arrested.

“As civilians record their every move on cell phones, the squad makes a series of quick decisions that turn an already enraged community further against them,” Leight says of the episode. “Throughout the episode, and the season, we’ll be looking at how explicit and implicit bias shape the criminal justice system, and also at how public scrutiny and anger, and internal conflicts, affect our squad.”