‘Law & Order: SVU’: Chris Meloni Shares First Photos of Elliot Stabler’s Anticipated Return

Chris Meloni is stepping back into his role of Elliot Stabler. The Law & Order: SVU alum shared his first photos with fans after returning to the hit NBC show’s set ahead of the highly-anticipated return of his beloved character after nearly a decade since his exit.

Meloni’s appearance on Season 22 of SVU will lead into a Stabler-centric spinoff, Law & Order: Organized Crime, set to premiere in 2021. While he was originally scheduled to make his return in the SVU premiere, the coronavirus pandemic and staffing changes pushed SVU to the spring, postponing his reunion with co-star Mariska Hargitay‘s character, Olivia Benson.

Now that Meloni is on the SVU set, he shared the first photos back as Stabler, posting on Instagram a snap of his character’s U.S. Marine Corps tattoo with the caption, “#firstdayofschool.” In a second photo, Meloni posed for a selfie with daughter Sophia on set. “Get to work with my girl- #BestDayEver,” he captioned the father-daughter photo.

Earlier this month, Hargitay teased the return of her character’s longtime partner, sharing a photo from a virtual table read featuring the cast, writers and producers, including Meloni. “Well…that happened…,” Hargitay wrote on Instagram. Showrunner and executive producer Warren Leight posted a similar screenshot on Twitter. “Well, we had a pretty good read-thru (sic),” he wrote, praising “New York’s hardest working” production team.

In July, after Meloni’s return was announced, he explained to Entertainment Tonight that a “certain piece” fell into place that led to him taking another go at his iconic role. “For me, there were just personal things that I was like, ‘You know, now is a good time.’ That was it. There was nothing secret. It just was effortlessly correct,” he said of taking on the new show with the role he last played about a decade ago. “It’s one of these [things where] I felt like I believed in the stars and all that… I’d go, ‘Oh, the stars are telling me you know but because it was just right.’”

As for his connection with Hargitay, he continued, “We just pick it up right where we left off and we’ve said it’s like we don’t have this relationship with anyone else. It’s unique, it’s full of laughter, she’s full of love. We just kind of fall seamlessly into that place every time we see each other.”