Law & Order: SVU season 25 – UK release date, cast and latest news

Sure, it's been quite a wait since we've been able to watch the series on this side of the pond, but that wait will be worth it as we return to the world of SVU with Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) at its helm.

There are few series that continue to grip viewers and excite them multiple seasons in, but when we're talking about long-running crime dramas, Law & Order is a franchise that instantly springs to mind for many.

While the original series has many a loyal fan, so too does one of its numerous spin-offs, SVU, which follows a group of specially trained detectives in the NYPD who form the Special Victims Unit.

Like any good procedural drama, the series follows the investigations they're faced with, which here are some of the city's sexually-based offences, including harassment and sexual assault.

Law & Order: SVU has been on our screens since 1999, and it doesn't look as though the series is set to slow down anytime soon, with the 26th season already having a US release date.

Read on for everything you need to know about Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 25 release date

The new, 25th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered in the US on Thursday 18th January 2024 at 9pm ET on NBC.

Now, a release date has finally been confirmed for the UK, and Law & Order: SVU season 25 will kick off on Friday 23rd August at 9pm on Sky Witness and NOW.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 25 cast news

The main cast of SVU has remained relatively constant throughout its 25 seasons but the major character departure of Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) in 2011 really shook things up, with the detective now featuring in his own spin-off, Organized Crime.

The cast of SVU is led by Mariska Hargitay as Captain Olivia Benson, and we can likely expect the same regular faces of Ice-T as Fin, Peter Scanavino as Sonny and more.

We do know, though, that one previous regular face in SVU is set to make a reappearance in season 25, as Kelli Giddish is set to return for the season 25 premiere.

Giddish starred as former detective Amanda Rollins, first appearing in season 13 and leaving the series in December 2022. Since then, Giddish returned for the SVU season 24 finale, where fans learnt that she is teaching criminal behaviour at Fordham University but life is a lot less exciting now.

So, could Rollins be coming back to the SVU team? While we're not sure in what capacity Giddish is set to reappear, we'll just have to wait and see if it forms part of a bigger subplot that brings her back in the series more regularly.

Kevin Kane will also be making an appearance this season as Detective Terry Bruno. Although he doesn't need to work after getting a big payout from a wrongful termination case, he returns to work with the people he knows well.

Talking about his return, Kane told TV Insider: “He doesn’t have to but he sees people that are there to make a difference and that’s why he would work. He feels like these people are there for the same reasons he would be, and so he’s found sort of a kinship with them.”

The Law & Order: Special Victims Unit cast that are returning for season 25 are:

• Mariska Hargitay as Olivia Benson
• Ice-T as Odafin "Fin" Tutuola
• Peter Scanavino as Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr
• Demore Barnes as Christian Barland
• Octavio Pisano as Joe Velasco
• Terry Serpico as Chief Tommy McGrath
• Kevin Kane as Detective Terry Bruno
• Peter Scanavino as Sonny Carisi

One person that we know won't be returning for season 25 is Molly Burnett (Detective Grace Muncy), who was in the show for less than a year.

News of Burnett's departure was announced back in May 2023 (via Deadline) and so, with a gap in the SVU team now, it's likely that either a new character or Giddish could be coming to fill that role.

What will Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 25 be about?

Exact series details are being kept under wraps for now but as with previous seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, we can expect Olivia Benson and the team to be taking on some of the city's most harrowing sexually-based offences.

The last we saw of SVU, there was an epic crossover finale episode with Organized Crime – with Olivia and Elliot teaming up once more to take down the criminal at the centre of a dark website that advertised 'rape and murder for hire'.

After the teams eventually shut down the site and nail the culprit, the finale saw the departure of Burnett's Detective Muncy, who leaves SVU for a position McGrath (Terry Serpico) offered her on a task force.

As for what will happen in the new series, with the return of Rollins in the season 25 premiere, we can expect to learn more about her life post-SVU but also how she finds herself back with the team – could she be bringing a criminal case to them? We'll have to wait and see.

Is there a trailer for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 25?

There is! The brief trailer gives us a look at the season to come, with glimpses also of Law & Order: Organized Crime season 4.

Watch the trailer below.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit season 25 premieres on Sky Witness and NOW on Friday 23rd August at 9pm.

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