This upcoming fall, Mariska Hargitay is set to return with another season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In the meantime, news has come out that a new character is joining the series. One of the series’ showrunners even teased that this is a character that will certainly play off Captain Olivia Benson.
Mariska Hargitay Has Brought Law & Order: Special Victims Unit‘s Captain Olivia Benson To Life Since 1999
Hargitay has played Olivia Benson for decades on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. First playing the character in 1999, this is the longest-running character of all time in American primetime dramas.
The series is set to debut Season 28 this upcoming October, having wrapped up Season 27 this past May. In the meantime, news has come out that a new actor is joining the series.
J. Smith-Cameron, known for her work on Succession, is set to recur during the upcoming season, even appearing in the October 8 premiere. According to TV Insider, she will portray jury consultant Gwen Sharpe. Showrunner Michele Fazekas has already praised her as a “great get because she’s good.”
Reportedly, Gwen is being brought in to be a “peer” to Captain Benson. As Fazekas explained, “Benson is the boss, so when she’s despairing or disillusioned, you’re not going to really talk to your employees, the people who are your subordinates, because as much as she’s friends with them and she’s friends with Rollins [Kelli Giddish], as a good manager, you’re not going to do that. So, I like giving her somebody who’s very, very experienced in a different way, who she can sort of have these conversations with. So J. Smith-Cameron is coming in. She’s great.”
Benson Will Also Ask Big Questions This Season After 30 Years As Part Of The Unit
In addition, the season is set to explore what will happen next for Benson after 30 years on the force. This will include questions of retirement and how much things have changed and stayed the same in the world of investigation.
Fazekas noted that Benson will start to feel at times that things haven’t really changed over the decades. She continued, “It’s a case that is really kind of disheartening for Benson. And she ends up sort of saying like, ‘Oh, in some ways, yes, nothing has changed.’ I wanted to see what she does with that, and so how does Benson push against her own boundaries?”
Fazekas then teased just what she has planned for the character. As she continued, “How does Benson push further to get justice and even sort of challenge her own ideas of what is ethical and what is the right thing to do? How far will she go to get justice? I like playing with those boundaries and pushing against them because it is a little bit of being, not despair so much, but certainly disillusioned as you can be with the justice system when things seem to be so stacked against you. I like putting her in that spot and seeing what she does with it.”
‘Law & Order: SVU’ casts J. Smith-Cameron in recurring role in Season 28. https://t.co/rOwLo8cEWR
— TV Insider (@TVInsider) August 27, 2026
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John Witiw has been a writer since at least 2015. He’s covered a variety of topics, especially when it comes to film and television.
