'Law & Order' Revival Casts 'Burn Notice' Star

The casting for the Law & Order revival is beginning to take shape. Jeffrey Donovan, who starred in USA Network's Burn Notice, was cast as a new character in the iconic show's 21st season. NBC and Dick Wolf announced plans to bring the show back in September, over a decade after Law & Order's 20th season ended.

Little is known about Donovan's new role, other than he will play an NYPD detective reports Variety. Like many, many actors, Donovan appeared in an episode of Law & Order early in his career. He appeared in the 1995 episode "Jeopardy." In 2007, the same year Burn Notice began, he played a different role in the episode "Good Faith."

No other casting has been announced for Law & Order Season 21, although many of the show's former stars are expected to return. Sam Waterston, who played D.A. Jack McCoy, and Anthony Anderson, who played Det. Kevin Bernard, are in talks to come back, Deadline reports. In early October, Anderson said he spoke with Wolf about the new season, but couldn't say for certain if he was coming back.

Law & Order debuted in 1990 and remains an influential police procedural and legal drama to this day. The show ran 20 seasons and could have become the longest-running primetime drama in U.S. television history had NBC not suddenly canceled it in 2010. Instead, that distinction went to its first spin-off, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which is now in the middle of its 23rd season. NBC is also airing Law & Order: Organized Crime, which is now in its second season.

Wolf and NBC announced Law & Order would be coming back on Sept. 28. Rick Eid was hired as writer, showrunner, and executive producer. "There are very few things in life that are dreams come true. This is mine," Wolf said in a statement.

As for Donovan, the Massachusetts native began his career in 1995. He scored the biggest role of his career so far when he was cast as Michael Westen in Burn Notice, a USA Network series about a former spy who helps people with dangerous problems in Miami while investigating the people who forced him out of espionage. The show ran seven seasons between 2007 and 2013. The series also included a made-for-television movie, Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe, which aired in 2011. Donovan has also starred in the series Fargo and Shut Eye, and the movies Sicario: Day of the Soldado, J. Edgar, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, and Wrath of Man.