The promotional train for Law & Order: Organized Crime is off to a thrilling start.
NBC dropped a new trailer for the series, and it finds Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler reflecting on the past.
Meloni is returning to the franchise after a decade away, and that means he has some explaining to do when he reunites with the Law & Order: SVU characters he left behind.
“Look, when I left SVU, I know I didn’t handle that well,” Stabler tells Fin (Ice-T) in the new footage.
“You didn’t handle it at all!” Fin responds, adding:
“We worked side by side for 10 years, man.”
“You know how much time has passed that you can’t reach out? Days turn into months, turn into years, and I just kept waiting for the right moment,” Stabler shoots back as we get a look at scenes from the past.
The new series will follow Elliot Stabler, who returns to the NYPD to battle organized crime after a devastating personal loss.
However, the city and police department have changed dramatically in the decade he’s been away, and he must adapt to a criminal justice system in the midst of its own moment of reckoning.
Throughout the series, we will follow Stabler’s journey to find absolution and rebuild his life while leading a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.
The good news for longtime fans of the character is that we will be getting some clarity on the unanswered questions left lingering when Elliot exited.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions about how he left, why the silence vis-à-vis Olivia Benson,” Christopher revealed on The Talk last summer.
“I think, in real terms, society, and what we are dealing with in society, has changed dramatically. So, I think you have to address that. And, I think the person Elliot was, I think we all evolve. I think all those things are going to be put into play.”
As you will likely recall, Meloni exited the series due to a contract dispute, and there was no closure for his character.
“For me, it was about how things fell out — and the word I’ll use is that it was inelegant,” the actor recently revealed to People Magazine.
“At the end of the day, how it was handled was, ‘Okay, see you later.’ So I went, ‘That’s fine. We’re all big boys and girls here. See you later.’ And I was off on new adventures and doing what I wanted to do.”
Have a look at the clip below and be sure to tune in when the series debuts on April 1.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.