Law & Order Revival: Anthony Anderson to Return as Bernard, Hugh Dancy Cast
Det. Kevin Bernard is back on the case.
Anthony Anderson has joined Law & Order‘s upcoming revival at NBC, reprising the role he played on the flagship series, TVLine has learned.
We hear that Anderson will be back for just one season of the procedural. In other very significant casting news, Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, The Path) is joining the continuation as an assistant district attorney.
The continuation, which will be Season 21 of Dick Wolf’s original L&O series, will premiere on Thursday, February 24, 2022 at 8/7c. Spinoffs Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime will follow at 9 and 10 pm, respectively.
Law & Order was cancelled abruptly in 2010 at the end of its 20th season. Anderson, who starred on the series in Seasons 18-20, is the first original cast member to return. In September, sources confirmed to TVLine that preliminary talks were in the works with some of the franchise’s veteran players. At the time of its cancellation, Law & Order‘s cast included Anderson, S. Epatha Merkerson, Jeremy Sisto, Alana de la Garza, Linus Roache and Sam Waterston.
In early November, Burn Notice alum Jeffrey Donovan joined the revival as a police officer though, as is the case with Dancy, no further details about the character are available.
Anderson now stars in ABC’s black-ish, which is about to enter its final season. Dancy’s upcoming projects include Apple TV+’s anthology Roar and the film Downton Abbey: A New Era.
In a recent TVLine poll, Anderson’s Bernard was in the Top 10 of Law & Order characters readers wanted to see return for the revival.
So awesome to hear that Hugh Dancy is going to be in it. Hopefully he’s a permanent cast member(meaning more than a single season), also hopefully he’s a series regular
Deadline is reporting Dancy is playing the ADA, not a detective. Which one is true?
ADA is correct. My mistake. Fixed! — KR
Would be cool if Bernard is now the squad leader (captain or Lieutenant).
Huh, only one year. Just a total guess but feels like they’re setting up Donovan to be the new LT by the end of the season. Maybe he’s lieutenant from the start, but Bernard starting with the role and passing the torch makes for some nice symbolism, and keeps the door open for a Merkerson cameo if Bernard needs to seek advice from Van Buren.
Thats kinda weird in a universe where there’s already been crossovers with Chicago One & SVU, and Epatha is the hospital administrator on Med…
If you want to see it i odd because it’s the same universe then it is Med that is the weird one as Van Buren existed first.
Anderson wouldn’t have been my first choice of cast members to bring back. But I loved Dancy on Hannibal!
Fully agree!!
Yup. I also wanted a woman exec ADA. I’m guessing with Hugh Dancy there, that isn’t going to happen, either.
Well, since he’s an ADA, which is an assistant district attorney, there’s still an opportunity to have a woman as the actual district attorney, who would be his boss.
Guarantee Sam Waterston will come back as DA.
Would like to see him but we’ll see.
When Warren Leight took over SVU he had it mentioned that there was a new DA…when Michael Chernuchin,who had created the McCoy character on L&O,took over SVU he had McCoy back as DA…now Leight is back in charge of SVU.Maybe Dick Wolf will have to decide.
There are layers of management between the DA and ADAs,and Betty Buckley recently appeared on SVU as the Trial Division Chief who ranked above Carisi’s Bureau Chief and would likely be above the L&O Bureau Chief as well.
Don’t forget Dianne Weist played DA for a season (or two?) waaay back when. Only time a woman got that role.
But I do love Sam Waterston.
Love That Anthony Anderson is coming back hope he stays for much longer than one season. S. Epatha Merkerson needs to come back as Captain.
As long as they keep “Stabler” & “Benson” off the show it will be great!
Particularly Benson. Can’t believe of all the Law and Order shows, SVU is the one they continue to promote.
How do you have Jeremy Sisto, Alana de la Garza and S. Epatha on when they are characters on other Wolfe shows that have done crossovers, so they’re supposedly in the same universe?
Doppelgangers? When did the FBI universe cross over with L&O?
Chicago pd has crossed over with both FBI and SVU, making them in the same universe.
I’m already aware of the Chicago crossovers, but my question concerned Jeremy Sisto and Alana de la Garza from FBI (as the original poster mentioned)
I wouldn’t count them on appearing until they leave their current shows.
And even “Mike Logan” is evidently a regular on The Equalizer
The chances aren’t great because even though they are all Wolf shows, one Wolf universe is on NBC and the other is on CBS.
That doesn’t matter anymore…
Tracy Spadikos appeared on FBI making one Chicago, one FBI and one Law and Order in the same universe
That doesn’t matter. Jerry Orbach played a defense attorney before he played Briscoe and Jeremy Sista also played one on the season finale prior to the season premiere he appeared as Lupo.
Even in real life, sometimes people just look like other people! : D
Never thought Anderson was a good fit. Always saw him more as a comedy actor. Also don’t like the idea of it only being for one season meaning you lose any investment you have in the character by season 2.
I enjoyed Anderson more on LAW AND ORDER than on his current show. Glad he’ll be on the revival.
Yeah. I read this news, and I though “Oh no.” In fact, I pretty much attribute the cancellation of the original series the first time to him. He’s a tremendous actor–and he can do drama as well as comedy, just watch him on The Shield–but his character was dull as dishwater.
.
However, if they’re making him the lieutenant, as some people have suggested might be the case, that could work. Strange that they’re going into this with only a one-season commitment, though. It hints at a less procedural and more serialized approach.
Nope — that’s a no for me He did make a good detective for me. Why, I stopped watching.
I liked pretty much any detective duo that included Ed Green, ie with Lennie Briscoe/Joe Fontana/Nina Cassady/Cyrus Lupo
Dont forget Rey Curtis! 😍
Love this!!!
He should be Captain…
And that killed my interest.
Anderson was awful, and one of the reasons why I stopped watching Law & Order.
I’d rather watch Jerry Orbach’s grave for a solid hour than five annoying minutes of detective Bernard.
😭😂😭. I agree.
Well said. I agree.
Thank goodness Anthony Anderson is only on for one season. Other then him I’m really digging the cast with Jeffrey Donovan & Hugh Dancy? Thank you Dick.
Happy, but would have preferred Linus Roache.
I’m still holding out hope for S.Epatha Merkerson to return as Lt. Anita Van Buren. Hopefully Van Buren will also be cancer free!
They already established years ago that someone else had replaced Van Buren in charge of the detectives at the 27th.
Also,Merkerson has another role in the Chicago/L&O universe now.
Darn won’t watch Anthony Anderson.
Excited for the show, plus, Hugh Dancy & Jeffrey Donovan!
Good grief, we have enough of the series without bringing back another one. Soon, we are going to have 3 L&O on Thursday which is after Wednesday 3 Chicago series. O only watch Chicago PD.
Others are excited for it. Surprise! Others have different taste than you. I can’t stand SciFi and fantasy but don’t go around whining on those threads.
Why BaseballnKittles! I was merely stating my opinion and now I know yours too!
No offence, I don’t watch Organised Crime and SVUs constant crossovers are annoying.
Three related shows to keep us watching just one channel per evening is exactly the intention. When Dick Wolf was the guest on The Actors Studio, and asked what his favorite word was, his answer was “syndication.”
I’ll probably only watch if/when Waterston is on. The best L&Os were the earliest – Jerry Orbach, S. Epatha Merkerson, etc. Happy to let those years RIP without being shadowed by a re-boot.
Glad to see Anthony come back!!
Not interested in any of the new or returning cast announcements thus far. I was hoping for a majority to be ‘new names’ instead of the same old series retreads. Oh, well. Nothing says I’m required to watch every show of the Law and Order franchise.
I love Hugh Dancy. Hannibal was too much for me, but I did like Hugh’s character.
Anthony Anderson was my least favorite character on L&O. Guess I am in the minority…
Actually you are not…..
You very much are not. He’d poll near the bottom of L&O detectives, if not the bottom. (Well, Cassidy would probably take the bottom, followed by Greevey. Bottom three, though.)
Did you read the article you’re posting about?
“In a recent TVLine poll, Anderson’s Bernard was in the Top 10 of Law & Order characters readers wanted to see return for the revival.”
+125 TVLine Power User points (no cash value)
Get ’em😂👍
Seems like they want the Sr. detective to be a character that we know and set up Donovan to be the Sr. detective starting with his exit, much like they did with Ed Green and Cyrus Lupo in Season 18 since we can’t have Lupo for obvious reasons. Glad they are continuing the tradition and giving us time to meet Donovan’s character.
Maybe Bernard will return to IA after the season…
I’m looking forward to seeing Bernard again.