If you have not already heard the only good news of 2020, here it is: Christopher Meloni is returning to Law & Order SVU to reprise his role as Elliot Stabler in season 22, and I have literally never been more excited for anything in my entire life.
In a recent interview, he revealed that he wants to focus on "unresolved emotions" between Stabler and Benson.
“It’s pretty clear that Elliot will be in the SVU season opener,” Warren said.
"We had heard distant thunder about Chris Meloni coming back in the fall and we were going to lay a little groundwork for that."
"Her son had been rolled by a team of ne'er-do-wells and may have been drugged, and we were going to revisit [Benson’s half-brother] Simon's seeming overdose and we were going to get to know the stresses on the Stablers – what had happened to the Stabler family after Elliot both left SVU and apparently left them."
"We had the sense that the first episode of next year for SVU was going to bring Elliot back, so we were going to foreshadow that and explain a little more what happened to Simon," he said.
So, we have a lot to look forward to! We'll be seeing a lot more of Elliot Stabler!
Because, if you remember, they didn't exactly leave things on ideal terms when he left 10 years ago...
“Benson and Stabler are inextricably linked, locked and connected,” he said. "I think there is truly and deeply a worthwhile, inherent drama in exploring that relationship".
“How my character left was really unsatisfying, I think,” he went on.
Unsatisfying? That's an understatement!
He also had to submit to a psychological evaluation, personnel file review and participate in anger management classes.
But come the season 13 premiere, we were informed by Benson that Stabler failed to comply with the terms, and wouldn't be returning to work.
He explained that in a way, this leaves the door open to a few different approaches.
"I just think there will always be possibilities there."
“I left with zero animosity, but I did leave clearly and open-eyed in going forward and finding new adventures."
"I had done the ‘Law & Order’ way of storytelling, which they do really well, and I was interested in telling stories from a different angle".
He revealed that the show's creator, Dick Wolf, contacted him personally to ask him to return, and it was an offer he couldn't refuse.
Let us know what you think of Christopher Meloni returning to Law & Order SVU in the comments below!
