‘Law & Order: Organized Crime’: Premiere Photos Introduce Stabler’s Team in ‘SVU’ Spinoff

Law & Order: Organized Crime, easily the most-anticipated new show of the 2020-2021 television season, will finally debut on Thursday. Ahead of the premiere, NBC released a group of new photos from the first two episodes, finally revealing the names of important characters joining Christopher Meloni‘s Elliot Stabler in stopping New York crime syndicates. The series starts on Thursday at 10 p.m. ET, following a new Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode that reintroduces Stabler.

The two-hour Law & Order event kicks off with the SVU episode “Return of the Prodigal Son,” in which Capt. Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and her team rush to help Stabler’s family after receiving a threat. Stabler’s wife Kathy (Isabel Gillies), daughter Kathleen (Allison Siko), and son Dickie (Jeffrey Scaperrotta). Stabler will experience a “personal loss” of some kind that will inspire him to return to the New York Police Department.

Once he re-joins the force, Stabler will be assigned to lead a new elite squad responsible for taking down organized crime in the Big Apple, hence the title of his spin-off. He will work with Sgt. Ayanna Bell, played by Danielle Mone Truitt (Deputy). Dylan McDermott co-stars as a character named Richard Wheatley, but it is not clear who he is just yet. Tamara Taylor (Bones) and Ainsley Seiger also have undisclosed roles in the series. The photos also confirm that Benson will appear in the Organized Crime half of Thursday’s event.

Christopher Meloni as Elliot Stabler

Organized Crime will be a little different from previous Law & Order shows. “It’s not a case of the week, because organized crime doesn’t work in that way,” showrunner and executive producer Ilene Chaiken (The L Word) explained to Entertainment Weekly. “It’s an episodic show; the episodes will stand on their own. But the stories will also play out over the course of a whole season.” Chaiken was brought in after Matt Olmstead, a veteran of the One Chicago shows, left.

Mariska Hargitay as Capt. Olivia Benson

This will be Stabler’s first appearance on SVU since he left between Seasons 12 and 13. The character never got a proper send-off though, as Benson wound up learning Stabler left the force through dialogue. Stabler chose to retire rather than face an internal affairs investigation for shooting a woman avenging her mother’s murder.

Danielle Mone Truitt as Sergeant Ayanna Bell

In reality, Meloni reportedly left the show after contract negotiations with the network fell apart. Meloni told EW he also felt that it was “time” to leave the show. “There were some triggers to it,” he told EW. “But when I walked, I was like, ‘Okay, good.’ That was it.”

Nick Creegan as Richard “Richie” Wheatley Jr., Dylan McDermott as Richard Wheatley

Meloni also said he did not want to feature a Stabler who was as ready to lose his cool as Stabler was on SVU. “I don’t want, you know, a fifty-something Elliot Stabler stomping around, unable to control his anger anymore,” Meloni told EW. “That’s not an attractive thing to watch.”

Stabler and Bell

The first episode of the new series is titled “What Happens in Puglia,” while episode two is titled “Not Your Father’s Organized Crime.” According to the episode description, Stabler and Bell will investigate two different crimes that will seem to be unconnected at first, but they believe will have a link to their big organized crime case.

Dylan McDermott as Richard Wheatley

McDermott has surprisingly never appeared in a Law & Order series until now. The actor is best known today for his association with Ryan Murphy projects, having starred in Hollywood, American Horror Story, and The Politician. In 1999, he won a Golden Globe and earned an Emmy nomination for The Practice.