‘So happy to be back and play for a little bit!’ actress says
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Law and Order SVU alum Kelli Giddish is set to make her return for Season 25 after leaving the series midway through last year.
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Mariska Hargitay, who’s played Captain Olivia Benson since the show’s debut in 1999, confirmed the news in an Instagram post in which the two were seen dressed similarly to their characters and dancing to Paul Russell’s song Lil Boo Thang.
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“So happy to be back and play for a little bit!” Giddish commented on the clip.
Fans were ecstatic at the news, with one writing, “You truly don’t understand how HAPPY fans are with Kelli being back! We love her and Rollins so much!!!!”
“This was the best early Christmas present for all of the fans,” another fan remarked. “Welcome back @kelligiddish we have missed you.”
The official Instagram account for NBC also cheered the news, writing, “This is everything to me rn.”
Giddish, who joined the show as Detective Amanda Rollins in Season 13, announced her departure in August 2022. Variety later reported that the decision to leave was not hers.
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“I wanted to address the chatter I’ve seen online and let everyone know that this will, indeed, be my last season on Law and Order: SVU,” Giddish wrote via Instagram. “Playing Rollins has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of my life. I’ve been so fortunate to be a part of the Law and Order family for the last 12 years. “There is simply no other character on TV like Rollins. She’s grown and changed, and I have as well … I’m grateful I got to spend so many of my adult years with Rollins in my life.”
The series’ showrunner, David Graziano, responded to fans who were unhappy with the news of Giddish’s departure saying he was “saddened” by her exit.
“All I’ll say is Kelli has handled this with the most incredibly classy comportment. She is, without a doubt, one of the finest industry professionals I’ve come across (in) my 24 years of writing television. I’m saddened by her looming exit. It’ll be my lucky day if I ever get to write for her again,” he said in an interview with TVLine.
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But after her exit last December, Giddish hinted that her character might pop up from time to time (Rollins is in a relationship with Peter Scanavino’s ADA Carisi on the show). “The door is un-shut,” she said. “The world that Dick Wolf has created with all these shows now — I mean, the crossovers that happen, the people that come back.”
In a 2022 interview with Variety, Giddish also expressed gratitude that she got to play the character through many different stages in her life.
“I started playing her in my late 20s, so I’ve played her in three decades of my life, which is nuts. It’s insane. This is a show unlike any other. Shows don’t last 12 years, much less getting to play a character. With playing someone as multi-faceted as Rollins, I got to play all kinds of different things — down and out, on top, joyful, doubtful, scared, triumphant. I got to do the gambit,” she said.
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