Christopher Meloni is leaning into the humor. Days after Peacock canceled Law & Order: Organized Crime, the actor posted a series of Instagram selfies from a dinner outing with former co-star Mariska Hargitay, captioning the photos: "What one does on a random Thursday when still in LA and freshly unemployed. Dinner hang with pals."
The photos showed the two smiling over a meal, with actress Rachel McAdams making an unexpected appearance in the background. Hargitay, who has played Olivia Benson across 27 seasons of Law & Order: SVU, responded in the comments with "P4L" — partners for life.
Organized Crime was canceled after five seasons following a soft outreach for a new showrunner earlier this year. The show launched on NBC in 2021, ran for four seasons there, then moved to Peacock for its final year. Meloni had played Detective Elliot Stabler since SVU's debut in 1999, left after Season 12, and returned for the spinoff — giving him what he called "nearly 17 odd years" inside the franchise.
In a video posted to Instagram last week, Meloni addressed the cancellation with visible emotion. "I want to take this moment to say thank you to the fans who not only helped give the character of Elliot Stabler life and longevity, but for sticking with him and welcoming him back," he said. "Good ride. It was a good ride. I had a great time playing him."
While Organized Crime is done, SVU isn't going anywhere. NBC renewed the flagship series for a 28th season this month, extending its run as the longest-running primetime live-action series in television history.
The question now is whether Stabler might cross back into SVU. Hargitay told Deadline she hopes so. "That is a very heartening thing for both of us, that our relationship was so iconic culturally and that Benson and Stabler still resonates is deeply meaningful to me," she said, adding that scheduling would be the deciding factor given Meloni's busy career.
Meloni already has his next project lined up. He is set to star in The Land, an NFL drama from Dan Fogelman, coming to Hulu.
