'Law & Order: For the Defense' - What We Know About the Scrapped Spinoff

The Law & Order franchise has been around for over three decades. Many of the franchise's spinoffs have come and gone, but some of them never came to fruition, including Law & Order: For the Defense. The planned drama was given a straight-to-series order from NBC in 2021 that would take a look at the inside of a legal defense firm, as defense attorneys would be put under the microscope as well as the criminal justice system.

Not long after, the series was announced to be part of NBC's 2021-22 season, which would have kicked off a night of Law & Order series on Thursdays. Unfortunately, just two months after, it was reported that NBC and creator Dick Wolf mutually agreed to scrap the series, as it had yet to even have a cast, making the predicted fall launch impossible, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

While it's always possible that NBC and Wolf could come back to the series later in the future, for now, it sounds like For the Defense won't be happening. Even though the scrapped series was definitely a disappointment for likely many fans, there was a much better consolation that the franchise brought up.

In place of the scrapped series, NBC decided to keep with their plan to have another Law & Order series. The network put its focus on the mothership's revival. Season 21 of Law & Order ended up being part of the 2021-22 schedule but premiered during midseason 2022 to much fanfare. It only got 10 episodes for its return but got a full order for Season 22, and it is indeed coming back for Season 23. So, maybe it was a good thing NBC scrapped For the Defense, though it's hard to not picture what could have been.

It's hard to tell how well Law & Order: For the Defense would have done, but maybe having a new spinoff so soon after Organized Crime might not have been the best idea. Hopefully, NBC and Wolf decide to come back to the series someday soon or at least do another series similar to it because even if it wouldn't have lasted long, it still would have been intriguing to watch, especially considering what has been going on in the world.