Law & Order: SVU’s Mariska Hargitay Says Fans Shouldn’t Lose ‘Hope’ for Benson/Stabler Endgame

Like Law & Order fans, Special Victims Unit lead star Mariska Hargitay is ready for Captain Olivia Benson and Christopher Meloni’s Detective Elliot Stabler to make their feelings for one another official. The actor recently teased what the Law & Order fandom can expect from the two characters on the romance front in the upcoming season of SVU.

During the NBC Preview Event (via Collider), Hargitay teased the possibility of Benson and Stabler becoming romantically involved during Meloni’s upcoming guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 27, telling fans, with a gleeful smile, to “never give up hope.” For a long time, it didn’t seem like “Bensler,” the “ship” nickname that fans have given the pair, would be endgame within the Law & Order universe, given that Meloni shockingly left SVU after Season 12, leading to Stabler being written off in the following season.

Benson and Stabler were drawn back together when Meloni decided to return to the franchise a decade later with his own series, Organized Crime. Unfortunately, Meloni’s Law & Order: SVU return, which took place in the Season 22 episode, “Return of the Prodigal Son,” featured the death of Stabler’s wife, Kathy (Isabel Gilles). In the aftermath of that shocking death, Law & Order has repeatedly teased the fandom about a potential “Bensler” relationship, such as in the SVU Season 24 episode, “Blood Out,” which sees Stabler lean in for a kiss, only for Benson to tell him that she’s “not ready” yet.

Why Do Fans Keep Watching Law & Order: SVU?

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Since September 2019, Law & Order: SVU has been the longest-running primetime live-action series on American television, a record that the show will continue to make unbreakable by heading into its historic 27th season next week. With most shows lucky to last more than a season or two, Hargitay shared at the preview event why she believes SVU has had such staying power, explaining that “part of the story, because we’ve been together for so long, is really built on history, and the love and the pain that comes from building these relationships and then losing some of these relationships. So we start off there with some high stakes at a very painful loss.” She added that for Benson and Stabler specifically, they “come together at big moments.”

When Law & Order: SVU returns for Season 27, it will be with some major changes both in front of the camera and behind it. Michele Fazekas has closed a deal to become the first female showrunner for SVU, replacing David Graziano, while Juliana Martinez and Octavio Pisano will no longer be series regulars. Martinez joined the SVU cast in Season 26 as Detective Kate Silva, while Pisano has been with the drama series since Season 23 as undercover detective Joe Velasco. Additionally, Aimé Donna Kelly, who plays Captain Renee Curry, and Kelli Giddish, who plays Sergeant Amanda Rollins, have been promoted to series regulars for the new season. Giddish was previously a series regular from Seasons 13 to 24 before being briefly downgraded to special guest star and recurring for Seasons 25 and 26, respectively.