Sam Waterston to Have Law & Order SVU Role

Sam Waterston's Jack McCoy Will Appear on Law & Order SVU This Season

Published Sep 20, 2017

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Sam Waterston is set to reprise the role of Jack McCoy an an episode of Law & Order: SVU. It'll be Waterston's first time playing his signature TV character since the cancellation of the original Law & Order series back in 2010. McCoy was introduced in season 5 of creator Dick Wolf's long-running New York City-set procedural, and remained on the show through the series finale. Over the course of the series, prosecutor McCoy climbed through the legal ranks, eventually winning the election for District Attorney.

Law & Order itself is of course one of the longest-running and most prolific franchises in the history of TV, with the main series running for an incredible 20 seasons. The success of Law & Order would lead to multiple spinoffs, including SVU, Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury, and even a series set in Los Angeles. Today, the only one of those programs currently on the air is SVU, although a new spinoff - entitled Law & Order: True Crime - premieres later this month. As the subtitle suggests, that show will dramatize real life cases, starting with the Menendez murders.

Related: Law & Order: True Crime Anthology Series Coming to NBC

TVLine reports that Waterston's McCoy will appear on an episode during SVU's soon to premiere season 19. It's presently unclear exactly when during the season he'll show up, but it won't be until at least midseason. Thus, fans shouldn't expect to see Jack McCoy back on their TV screens until at least early 2018.

It's also currently unclear what exactly will draw McCoy back into the SVU orbit, as executive producer Julie Martin says that the script for Waterston's episode hasn't even been written yet. This won't be McCoy's first encounter with the SVU crew, though, as the character has appeared on three prior episodes of the spinoff. McCoy first popped up in SVU's debut season, and returned during both season 9 and season 11.

The now 76-year-old Waterston has been keeping busy since Law & Order ended, portraying benevolent cable news executive Charlie Skinner on Aaron Sorkin's HBO drama Grace and Frankie. It'll be interesting to see if Waterston can still summon up that old Jack McCoy spark after nearly a decade away from the character.