Legislation & Order: SVU star and government producer Mariska Hargitay explains the headline-grabbing demise that kicked off season 27. It is within the Legislation & Order season 27 premiere that the retired Donald Cragen (Dann Florek) is revealed to have died of pure causes. His wake is attended by a lot of his former colleagues, together with Hargitay’s Olivia Benson.
Cragen is a serious determine within the crime drama franchise, going again to the sequence premiere of the unique Legislation & Order in 1990. The character would later reappear in SVU, often making visitor appearances within the franchise even after his season 15 departure. Florek stays alive, showing in a video throughout Cragen’s farewell episode, which makes the demise really feel much more sudden.
Throughout a latest look on The Kelly Clarkson Present, Hargitay opened up about Cragen’s demise. The star and government producer underlined what made the scenes “lovely.” Hargitay additionally touched on among the returning actors who got here again for the pivotal episode, akin to Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler. Learn her feedback under:
That was so lovely about it’s these scenes, they virtually act themselves as a result of the circumstances are so highly effective, proper? And there’s such real love for the captain, for the actor, and simply having the previous regulars. Having Dean [Winters] come again and having BD Wong come again. After which, doing that scene with Chris [Meloni]. These are so lovely. These scenes, they’re so earned that there’s simply an ease and an effortlessness to it.
As talked about by Hargitay, Cragen’s demise serves as a chance for acquainted faces to hitch the Legislation & Order: SVU forged briefly. That features B.D. Wong returning as Particular Agent George Huang, along with Dean Winters coming again as Detective Brian Cassidy.
Regardless that Meloni has appeared in SVU typically since his 2021 return to the franchise, Winters final appeared in 2019. As for Wong within the function of George Huang, he final got here again in 2015. Taken by way of that lens, and matched with Hargitay’s feedback, Cragen’s demise is a chance to have fun the fan-favorite NBC sequence by bringing again among the names which have helped to outline it.
But it surely additionally works to honor each Florek, who was let go from the unique Legislation & Order solely to make his return in SVU, and basically spearhead the spinoff in these early seasons. Cragen is honored, as nicely. Benson and the staff collect to look at certainly one of Cragen’s retirement movies within the episode, providing him the chance to mirror on his profession and the individuals he is spent it with. It has an atypical really feel as a result of his demise is not pressured by any exterior circumstance.
It permits the episode to really feel much less unhappy than it may need been in any other case, closing the chapter on the Cragen period that helped to make Legislation & Order: SVU what it was when it premiered in 1999. Nearly three a long time later, that contribution is thoughtfully spotlighted.
Legislation & Order: SVU season 27 airs Thursdays at 9 PM ET on NBC
- Launch Date
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September 20, 1999
- Showrunner
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Michael S. Chernuchin, David Graziano
- Administrators
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Jean de Segonzac, David Platt, Peter Leto, Alex Chapple, Juan José Campanella, Norberto Barba, Constantine Makris, Martha Mitchell, Arthur W. Forney, Michael Slovis, Steve Shill, Alex Zakrzewski, Michael Pressman, Helen Shaver, Mariska Hargitay, Michael Smith, Ted Kotcheff, Fred Berner, Jonathan Kaplan, Holly Dale, Jonathan Herron, Jud Taylor, Adam Bernstein, Jim McKay
- Writers
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Judith McCreary, David Graziano, Michael S. Chernuchin, Daniel Actually, Jonathan Greene, Amanda Inexperienced, Lisa Marie Petersen, Allison Intrieri, Lawrence Kaplow, Jose Molina, Matt Klypka, Michael R. Perry, Samantha Corbin-Miller, Barbie Kligman, Robert F. Campbell, Candice Sanchez McFarlane, Gwendolyn M. Parker, René Balcer, Robert Nathan, Wendy West, Pace Weed, Ryan Causey, Chris Brancato, Christos N. Gage
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Mariska Hargitay
Olivia Benson
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Ice-T
Odafin ‘Fin’ Tutuola
