‘Law & Order: Hate Crimes’ – What to Remember About the Planned (and Scrapped) Spinoff

The Law & Order franchise is still going strong after over three decades, but the same can’t be said for a few of its many spinoffs that did not go to series, including Law & Order: Hate Crimes. Announced back in 2018, NBC gave a 13-episode order to Hate Crimes that would have been set in New York City and center on crimes motivated by discrimination that are investigated by a specially trained team of investigators. It was going to be based on the city’s Hate Crimes Task Force, which works under the NYPD’s real SVU.

Law & Order: Hate Crimes was planned to be introduced on Law & Order: SVU in the back half of the series’ 20th season. However, in March 2019, NBC announced that they would be redeveloping the spinoff, and the planned introduction on SVU was scrapped. Just over a year later, it was reported that Hate Crimes was still in development and that Peacock would be airing it instead of NBC due to concerns that the language would be inappropriate for broadcast television.

While Law & Order franchise veteran Warren Leight, who was developing Hate Crimes, told The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast in 2020 that it was still in development, there haven’t been many updates on the series. As of now, there isn’t any actual confirmation that the series has been scrapped, but after being stuck in limbo for at least five years with no indication that there will be any plans to bring it back to life, Hate Crimes probably isn’t happening, at least not any time soon.

There is always the possibility that Hate Crimes will come out of development and finally see the light of day, but with three Law & Order series already airing, a fourth one may be pushing it just a tad. However, that also doesn’t mean that fans can’t still see the SVU team work with the Hate Crimes team every once in a while, and it could also build up to a potential spinoff. For now, Hate Crimes is not happening any time soon.

Luckily fans won’t be out of Law & Order content as the flagship series, SVU, and Organized Crime are all coming back to NBC for the 2023-24 season. Organized Crime, though, but the wait will surely be worth it. Hopefully, Law & Order: Hate Crimes finds its way out of limbo and onto the screen someday, but fans will just have to wait and see for the time being.