Mariska Hargitay is thrilled to be reuniting with her longtime co-star Christopher Meloni, despite the upcoming network change for Meloni’s show, Law & Order: Organized Crime.
Meloni’s spinoff series is set to move to Peacock for its fifth season, but Hargitay, 60, has big plans for their characters to cross paths in a Law & Order: SVU crossover episode.
“I’m actually planning on it. I just told him the other day,” Hargitay shared in a recent interview with Variety. “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.”
Fans have been eagerly anticipating more screen time for Hargitay’s Captain Olivia Benson and Meloni’s Detective Elliot Stabler ever since he returned to the Law & Order universe in season 22 of SVU.
“It’s time now for us. This was a long time not being in each other’s universe,” Hargitay said. “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.”
Although Meloni, 63, did not appear in season 25 of SVU, viewers saw Hargitay’s Benson speak to him on the phone after she gave away a compass necklace he had given her to “lead her to happiness.”
Hargitay hopes her character will get the necklace back in a future episode, noting that Meloni was incorporated into the scene because 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 explained.
“It’s very much our relationship. It’s underneath. There’s so much that words don’t do,” Hargitay continued. “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].”
Hargitay also spoke about their enduring friendship in January, telling PEOPLE, “We met, and the rest is history. It’s iconic. [He’s] somebody who’s changed my life so much, somebody I love.”
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by Law & Order: Organized Crime, which will move exclusively to Peacock for season 5.
