SVU Officially Lays the Groundwork for Kelli Giddish’s Return — But There’s *One* Thing in the Way
Rollins is back.. kind of! After multiple guest appearances in Season 25, fans can’t help but wonder whether Kelli Giddish is coming back to Law & Order: SVU for good and whether she’ll be reprising her role as Detective Amanda Rollins full time after leaving the series in December 2022. Keep reading for all the details on the detective’s suspected comeback and whether fans could see her put back on her badge.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (also known as Law & Order: SVU or just SVU), is the police procedural drama that follows trained detectives in the New York City Police Department as they investigate sexually related crimes. Created by Dick Wolf, SVU is the first spin-off of Law Order and the second in the Law & Order franchise alongside Law & Order: Organized Crime. The series debuted in September 1999 and stars Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni. It is one of the longest-running scripted live-action series in the history of American TV, having just wrapped its 24th season in May 2023 and currently filming its 25th season.
Giddish, who got her start on the soap opera All My Children, portrayed the role of Amanda Rollins, a detective in the Special Victims Unit of the NYC Police Department. Her character first appeared in Season 13, Episode 1, “Scorched Earth,” and was introduced as a transfer from Atlanta. Her work partner was Detective Fin Tutuola (Ice-T) and Rollins has two daughters, Jesse and Billie, both from previous relationships. Giddish ultimately decided to exit the series midway through season 24 in December 2022 after 11 years of playing Rollins.
“Playing Rollins has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life,” she wrote on Instagram, announcing her exit. “I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of the Law & Order family for the last 12 years. There is simply no other character on TV like Rollins. She’s grown and changed, and I have as well. I started on this show when I was in my late 20s and I’m grateful I got to spend so many of my adult years with Rollins in my life.”
Is Kelli Giddish coming back to SVU?
Is Kelli Giddish coming back to SVU? Mariska Hargitay, who plays Captain Olivia Benson, revealed in an interview with Variety in May 2024 that she was campaigning for Giddish and Rollins to return to SVU full time. She also confirmed that Giddish was fired during Season 24 by creator and executive producer Dick Wolf. “Kelli is my favorite actor to work with,” Hargitay said. “Kelli is my heart. It’s a sore subject. I have a lot of say on the show, but I didn’t have enough there.”
She continued, “I don’t like not being listened to, especially when I’m right. 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.”
SVU also seemed to set up Rollins’ return in Season 25, Episode 11, “Prima Nocta,” which saw Giddish come back for a guest appearance. In the episode, Benson asks Rollins to meet for lunch. During the meal, Benson receives a call about a bride, Jenna, who locked herself in a room at her own wedding and won’t talk to anyone but SVU. Benson takes the call, and Rollins comes with her. Jenna tells Benson and rollins that she was raped, and Rollins, who is still an active police officer though no longer a part of the SVU, agrees to help her. In the end, Rollins is able to arrest a man named Leon after getting his DNA under her fingernails in fight and on the rim of a glass to match him to three rape cases, including Jenna’s.
At the end of the episode, Benson confirmed that Rollins wouldn’t be returning to the SVU. “So are you saying you don’t want me back?” Rollins said, to which Benson couldn’t have her come back even if she wanted to .”I don’t have a desk for you,” she said. The episode ends with Benson giving Rollins advice to figure out her life and what she actually wants from her future before deciding if a return to the SVU was right for her. “I don’t want SVU to be your safety net,” she said. “How about you take some time, figure out what makes you happy?”
The last time fans saw Rollins as a series regular was during the Season 24 midseason finale, when she had spontaneously married Assistant District Attorney Dominick “Sonny” Carisi in a courthouse ceremony with all her coworkers present. She then left the NYC Police Department for a job teaching criminal behavior at Fordham University. Giddish’s first return to came during SVU‘s Season 24 finale, which was part of a three-way crossover event with Law & Order, SVU and Organized Crime. When she returned, she surprised her former colleagues with news that she was pregnant. Rollins’ pregnancy coincided with Giddish’s real-life one, as the actress and her husband Beau Richards welcomed a son, Oldie, in June 2023. She also shares two sons, Ludo and Charlie, with ex-husband Lawrence Faulborn.
While it’s still unclear if Rollins could return to SVU full time, she did tell Detective Elliot Stabler in the Season 24 crossover event that she was feeling bored with her job at Fordham. “I love the students, but I do miss the feeling of solving a good mystery,” she said. Giddish had also previously told Variety during a December 2022 interview that the “door was un-shut” to her returning to the franchise as a series regular.
“The world that Dick Wolf has created with all these shows now — I mean, the crossovers that happen, the people that come back. Chris Meloni was gone for 12 years and then his character came back. S. Epatha [Merkerson] is on Chicago Med. These these characters are so beloved and so well-defined, because you get to see them day in and day out,” she explained. “We’re in people’s living rooms. So the audience loves these characters, they know us. Dick Wolf has got such a fertile universe that’s going on, that people can pop up in different places. That’s really a cool thing that he’s created.”
