The Original Law & Order Is Coming Back to NBC

A decade and change after the original Law & Order closed out a run of twenty seasons (back when TV shows had 22 or 24 episode seasons), NBC has announced that the O.G. of the wildly successful franchise is set to return.  "There are very few things in life that are literally dreams come true. This is mine," Dick Wolf, the head of Wolf Entertainment and the man who started the massive and ever-expanding franchise, said of the Season 21 order.

Veteran showrunner Rick Eid will return to run the beloved show, which will tell the stories of "the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders." Eid's worked on Law & Order for its original run as well as  Law &Order: SVU. Eid was also in charge of  Law & Order: Trial By Jury, the spin-off NBC picked up in the spring and then ditched ahead of fall premieres, apparently in favor of reviving the original series instead. Eid is currently a showrunner on two other Wolf series, FBI and Chicago P.D.

Fall TV Premiere Dates for New and Returning Shows

No casting announcements have been made yet, The Hollywood Reporter claims original cast members are being reached out to return. Sam Waterston, who played Jack McCoy in the original run, told the trade in 2015 that he'd love to return. Some former Law & Order stars are already working on other Wolf Entertainment shows, including S. Epatha Merkerson on Chicago Med and Alana De La Garza on FBI. 

The original Law & Order series was nominated for more than 50 Emmy Awards and won in 1997 for Outstanding Drama Series.

No premiere date has been set for the returning series. 

Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime air on NBC on Thursdays at 9/8c and 10/9c respectively.