Mariska Hargitay Is Already ‘Planning’ Benson and Stabler Reunion Despite ‘Law and Order: Organized Crime’ Moving to Peacock: ‘It’s Time’
“Law & Order: Organized Crime” may be moving to Peacock for Season 5, but that doesn’t mean it won’t still have some crossovers with “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.” In fact, Mariska Hargitay is already finding a way to reunite with Christopher Meloni, she told Variety exclusively at the NBCU FYC Emmy showcase on Saturday.
“I’m actually planning on it,” she said of an upcoming crossover episode. “I just told him the other day. We had a party the other night, we saw each other. It was heavenly. I met his showrunner. They want us together, and Chris and I were talking about it, and it’s time. It’s time now for us. This was a long time not being in each other’s universe. That’s why we did the calls and stuff like that. But we’re excited to get back in there, get back in the ring.”
During the Season 25 finale of “SVU,” Hargitay’s Olivia Benson took off the compass necklace she was gifted from Stabler, giving it to Maddie’s mom. She told her that it had guided her through some tough times but for now, she needs it more. Although he did not appear in the episode — or in Season 25 at all — the finale ended with Benson calling him to share that she’d never taken the necklace off until now, giving it to a victim’s mother, he understood immediately.
Hargitay says she hopes that one day, she’ll get the necklace back.
“We’ll see. I hope I do. But that’s why we added the scene with Elliot and I on the phone. He gets it. If anyone understands how somebody could have needed it more than I do, he would. Because he lived it with me. I thought that was such an intimate scene and I wanted to get his blessing. That was why we wrote that scene,” she said, adding that it was powerful Elliot didn’t get upset but instead completely understood without question. “It’s very much our relationship. It’s underneath. There’s so much that words don’t do. One of the things that Chris and I do that’s so beautiful is when we read a scene, we’re always like, ‘Too much, we don’t need that much.’ Because so much of our communication is here [motions to her eyes].“
In her recent Power of Women Variety profile, Hargitay revealed that the actors both thought the characters should have kissed in Season 24 — and it almost happened, as shown in the teaser, but got cut.
“To be honest with you, Chris and I thought it should go one way and the powers that be didn’t, so it got changed at the last minute, that near kiss,” she says. “Obviously Dick [Wolf] gets final say. It’s his show and he didn’t want that.”
When talking about their open-ended romance, she added, “We want to hold the tension, and do what’s right and truthful for both characters… I think that we’re sort of irrevocably locked.”
“Law & Order: SVU” is produced by Universal Television and Wolf Entertainment.
