The “Law & Order: SVU” squad room will be like a well-stocked picnic in Season 28: plenty of Ice-T.
Showrunner Michele Fazekas tells TVLine that, as was the case in Season 27, the long-running procedural’s budget for the coming season puts a limit on how many episodes can feature the entire roster of series regulars. Series star Ice-T commented on the situation in 2025, when fans noticed he hadn’t been in many episodes.
“It’s just basically business. They brought Kelli back,” he said at the time, referring to co-star Kelli Giddish, who plays Sgt. Amanda Rollins and who recently had returned to the NBC drama. “At the end of the day, they couldn’t keep both of us on both times, as far as budget-wise.”
As a result, the Season 27 premiere found Fin attacked by a pair of con artists who beat him bloody and stole his gun. (Read a recap here.) His convalescence took quite some time; he showed up every once in a while, then made a more robust return to the precinct toward the end of the season.
However, in Season 28, Fazekas adds, “I think we’ll have Ice-T more.”
What Fin will be up to in Season 28
Michele Fazekas’ credits include “Gen V” (where she also served as showrunner), “Kevin (Probably) Saves the World,” “Agent Carter” and “Reaper.” However, “SVU” is “the first time I’ve dealt with not having all your season regulars all the time,” she says. “In the new season, we can be strategic about how we don’t have everybody for every single episode — except for Mariska [Hargitay, who plays Capt. Olivia Benson], obviously.”
Fazekas was a writer on “SVU” Seasons 3 through 7, a time in which the show would sometimes break up the squad in order to facilitate shooting 25-episodes a season. “So it would be Munch and Fin in one episode, and Benson and Stabler in another episode, or you’d mix them up,” she recalls. “So it does give you an opportunity to play with different personalities and pair people differently.”
Similarly, she says, she sees the budgeting framework as “a challenge, and i’s a fun challenge. It sparks different ideas, like, ‘Oh, what if you put these two people together? How do they interact with each other? How do they approach things differently?'”
The Season 28 writers’ room convenes this week; Fazekas already has a few pairings in mind.
“I want to see more of Curry and Griffin together,” she says. “I like them together a lot. And then, in that case, it would be Bruno and Rollins together.”
As for Ice-T’s character: “Fin is like the pinch hitter,” Fazekas says. “The way I see Fin is almost like the Number 2 for Benson. I want to see him more in a training capacity in the next season.”
Are you glad to hear that Fin will be around more in Season 28? And what “SVU” pairings would you like to see in the coming season? Let us know in the comments!