'Law & Order SVU': All We Know About Elliot Stabler/Olivia Benson Reunion

Eliot Stabler (played by Christopher Meloni) has been missing from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, when his character retired rather than undergo an internal affair review. However, with Meloni about to return as Stabler for spin-off Law & Order: Organized Crime, it seems that he will also return to SVU to pay a visit to former co-worker Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay).

All we know about the Elliot Stabler and Olivia Benson SVU reunion

Stabler will return in the SVU premiere

Series showrunner Warren Leight confirmed on the SVU podcast that Stabler would make an appearance on the Season 22 premiere of the (very) long-running NBC show. He said: "It's pretty clear that Elliot will be in the SVU season opener. I think that much I know. Whether we get to see his family as well remains to be seen."

The reunion could air as early as September

Currently, both Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Organized Crime are part of the NBC fall line-up, with SVU airing on Thursdays at 9 p.m. and the new spin-off lead by Stabler following it at 10. This means that the two premieres are likely to be a double bill, with Stabler visiting Benson in SVU before joining his new team in the second hour of Law & Order.

When that will be, however, is very much up in the air. Both shows are in the fall-lineup, and all but one of SVU's 21 seasons have aired in late-September, suggesting that that is when Season 22 of SVU and Season 1 of Organized Crime will air. However, neither show is believed to have started filming at the time of writing, and production in New York is still mostly closed, meaning that it is questionable whether the shows will be ready in time for September and may have to wait until later in the fall or even 2021.

Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have already reunited

In the lead-up to their onscreen reunion, the actors behind Benson and Stabler have already been together. On July 20, Hargitay posted a picture of her and Meloni together outside, with the caption, "it's on."

Meloni posted the same picture on his Instagram, captioned: "Ladybug on my face n a lady on my arm #hanginWithBenson"

The reunion plot may revolve already the Benson and Stabler families

On the SVU podcast, Leight revealed what was going to happen on the last episodes of SVU Season 21 production had not shut down. He said: "We had heard distant thunder about Chris Meloni coming back in the fall and we were going to lay a little groundwork for that," Leight recalled. "We were going to see [his wife] Kathy Stabler [Isabelle Gillies] come back very upset. Her son had been rolled by a team of ne'er-do-wells and may have been drugged, and we were going to revisit [Benson's half-brother] Simon's [Michael Weston] seeming overdose and we were going to get to know the stresses on the Stablers–what had happened to the Stabler family after Elliot both left SVU and apparently left them."

This was also teased by Leight on Twitter, who told a fan: "Well, believe it or not, Simon's death was going to be re-examined in the finale. Along with the return of two prominent characters from earlier seasons [presumably Elliot and Kathy]. So, we're sorry not to get to make that episode. The three before it were also in pretty great shape. So it goes."

Though SVU was not able to film this due to production having to end on the show in April, some of this plot may be used in the fall premiere of the two series. This also seems to confirm that Gillies will be back as Kathy Stabler in the new series.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime are both coming soon to NBC.