SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Is Trying to Get Kelli Giddish Back for Season 26
If Kelli Giddish’s imminent Law & Order: SVU encore whets your appetite for a lot more Amanda Rollins, know that series front woman Mariska Hargitay sees you — and is doing what she can to make that happen.
Former series regular Giddish reprises her role as Rollins this Thursday, May 2, when a runaway bride calls SVU for help on the day of her wedding, and Rollins pitches in on her day off.
This will mark Giddish’s third appearance since she left SVU as a series regular in December 2022. When Giddish first returned almost a year ago, for SVU‘s Season 24 finale, Rollins was pregnant with her third child — her first with new husband ADA Dominick “Sonny” Carisi. During that episode, we learned that Rollins was teaching criminal behavior at Fordham University… and that she was very bored since leaving the squad.
Eight months later, SVU‘s Season 25 premiere opened with the christening of Rollins and Carisi’s infant son, Nicky; Benson was on hand, as the baby’s godmother.
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As part of a larger feature by our sister site Variety, Hargitay affirms that she fought the decision to drop Giddish from the cast back in 2022.
“Kelli is my favorite actor to work with. Kelli is my heart,” Hargitay said. “It’s a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show [as the star and an executive producer since Season 15], but I didn’t have enough there.”
Even so, Hargitay told Variety that she now is trying to bring Giddish back for the long-running procedural’s 26th season, premiering this fall.
“I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right,” Hargitay said. “That relationship was one of the most powerful relationships in television because you saw these two badass women, so flawed and so there for each other.”
Hargitay also addressed a nixed Season 24 kiss between Benson and Chris Meloni’s Stabler; you can read more about that here.
NBC’s SVU continues Season 25 this Thursday at 9/8c, with its finale airing May 16.
