In an Instagram post, producer Dick Wolf’s (Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU) production company posted a picture announcing Sam Waterson (The Newsroom, The Killing Fields) would return for the show’s twenty-first season. After a twelve-year hiatus, the iconic procedural cop show will return to NBC in 2022, much to the show’s creator, Wolf’s, joy.
“There are very few things in life that are literally dreams come true,” said Wolf in an interview with Variety. “This is mine.”
The post confirms the release date of Feb. 24, along with Waterson’s return. Waterson portrayed the district attorney for Manhattan, Jack McCoy, from the show’s fifth season, up until its cancellation after season twenty. This long-run makes Waterson the second longest-tenured cast member, with S. Epatha Merkerson (Radio, Chicago Med) being the longest-tenured cast member by one whole season.
While Merkerson has not announced her return, another popular cast member from the original show is expected to join Waterson: Anthony Anderson (Kangaroo Jack, Black-ish). Also entering the new season are Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice, Hitch), who played a police officer on two episodes of the show, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, Adam), Camryn Manheim (The Practice, Happiness), who also appeared in just a few episodes from past seasons and Oldelya Halevi (Good Girls Revolt, Why Women Kill).
Law and Order ran from 1990 to 2010 with 20 seasons under its belt, making it the longest-running live-action, scripted show in television history. It has also spawned multiple different spins-off shows, with the most popular being Law and Order: SVU, and its most recent addition to the mythos being Law and Order: Organized Crime.
This new season is being treated as just that, a simple new season continuing the procedural pattern (the cops investigate for the first half of the episode and then the DA’s prosecute for the second half) and not as a revival or reboot of the original show.