NBC and Dick Wolf have made a habit out of ripping stories from the headlines and putting them on TV with landmark crime and justice procedural Law & Order. There have been six versions of the show over the years, and number seven seems perfect for life in 2018.
Deadline reported on Tuesday that NBC is spinning off Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for a Law & Order: Hate Crimes series. Thought the original Law & Order went off the air in 2010 , Special Victims Unit is still going strong and still giving NBC new opportunities for Dick Wolf properties.
According to Deadline, Law & Order: Hate Crimes will be a direct spin-off from the SVU universe. That show, which is entering a record-tying 20th season this year, will beget a 13-episode Hate Crimes narrative from Law & Order executive producer and creator Dick Wolf.
The show stays with what makes Law & Order great in the first place: dramatizing real-life events that are based in a much more dangerous New York City.
Co-created with one of Wolf’s top lieutenants, former Law & Order: SVU showrunner Warren Leight, the latest Law & Order installment is based on New York’s actual Hate Crimes Task Force, the second oldest bias-based task force in the U.S. The unit, which pledges to uphold a zero tolerance policy against discrimination of any kind, works under the NYPD’s real Special Victims Unit and often borrows SVU’s detectives to assist in their investigations.
The new Law & Order series will be introduced as a planted spinoff from SVU, with the first incarnation of the new unit appearing in the latter part of the upcoming season of the Mariska Hargitay-starring series.
This is the seventh Law & Order property, following the original Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent, Trial By Jury, Los Angeles and the True Crime anthology. NBC executives seem very excited to tie the series into the present day, speaking about the real-life rise in hate crimes across the country and increasing racial tensions in America.
“As Law & Order: SVU enters its remarkable 20th season, it is exciting to get back into business with Dick Wolf on a new Law & Order incarnation that feels extremely timely,” co-president of scripted programming for NBC told Deadline. “Considering that last year there was a double-digit rise in hate crimes in our 10 largest cities — the highest total in over a decade — it seemed like this topic is begging to be explored.”
Details about when exactly Law & Order: Hate Crimes hits the air were not announced, but don’t expect to see the franchise leaving NBC anytime soon.
(via Deadline)
