Mariska Hargitay Teases Christopher Meloni’s ‘Law & Order: SVU’ Return Ahead of Season 28 Premiere

It appears Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson will reunite once again on “Law & Order: SVU” — at least for an episode.

Mariska Hargitay shared two photos of herself and Christopher Meloni on the set of the long-running crime procedural to her Instagram on Tuesday, suggesting that the actor had returned to film the show’s 600th episode. The first photo, which showed Hargitay pointing to the back of Meloni’s head, was captioned “Who dat?” while the second selfie showed the two smiling side by side and was captioned “Happy 600…”.

The sneak-peek into Stabler’s return comes nearly a year after Meloni last guested on the hit show — he most recently appeared in the Season 27 premiere of “Special Victims Unit,” which aired in Sept. 2025 — and five months following the announcement that he’d no longer be playing Stabler full-time after the cancellation of “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”

He first originated the “Special Victims Unit” character in 1999, when the show debuted on NBC, and continued to portray Stabler through its 12th season in 2011. Episode 600 won’t be the first time the star has returned to the franchise as a guest; in 2021, he came back while launching “Organized Crime,” which premiered in 2021 and ran for five seasons before its cancellation.

On the subject of Meloni’s departure from the show, Hargitay previously told Variety that she “did not want him to leave.” “I tried so hard to broker that, because it didn’t end great with them,” she said. In the same profile, “Special Victims Unit” producer and Wolf Entertainment president Peter Jankowski said that the actor was, at that moment, visiting the show’s base camp at Chelsea Piers for a meeting with showrunner Michele Fazekas; Meloni told Variety that the end of “Organized Crime” represents a closing of the door on Stabler. “It’s like when I left the last time,” he said. “You’ve got to keep moving.”

Since first premiering, the crime show has racked up an impressive 594 episodes. The 600th episode is set to air during the forthcoming Season 28, which will premiere on Oct. 8.