With Law & Order: SVU returning for Season 26 in the 2024 TV schedule, Mariska Hargitay is coming back to the world of Olivia Benson and investigating offenses that are considered especially heinous in New York City. The Emmy-winner spent some of hiatus between SVU seasons on the Taylor Swift train by attending the Eras Tour, and now has weighed in on the idea of Swift someday appearing on the NBC hit drama.
Considering that Taylor Swift is known to be a fan of SVU to the point of naming one of her cats after Olivia Benson, it's easy to imagine the pop superstar making the time to film at least a cameo. Could SVU join the list of upcoming Taylor Swift projects? Mariska Hargitay shared her thoughts when speaking with E! News, saying:
We can certainly dream, can't we? She’s very busy. But I’m not letting it go.
If that's not a Swiftie-esque attitude toward the idea, I don't know what is! Diehard Taylor Swift fans are famously persistent, so Mariska Hargitay "not letting it go" is in line with the fandom. Swifties did after all go as far as to show up at Travis Kelce's Kansas City Chiefs training camp; if they applied that enthusiasm to Mariska Hargitay's SVU thoughts, who knows what could happen? There would at least be plenty of buzz for SVU!
To quote Hargitay, Swift is "a magic-maker," and the actress named her cat after one of the superstar's songs. Hargitay even appeared in Swift's "Bad Blood" production, which ranks as one of the best Taylor Swift music videos. The history is certainly there! Swift also wouldn't be new to acting, with film credits in movies like Valentine's Day, The Giver, and Cats. She also made some TV appearances earlier in her career, with episode of CSI in 2009 and of New Girl 2013.
Of course, Taylor Swift isn't known for her acting nearly as much as her singing and touring, so it would be fun if she could just make a cameo of some sort or gave SVU permission to use one of her songs. I imagine that an artist might not necessarily want their music associated with a show that can get as dark and depressing as SVU, but Swift's career seems pretty unstoppable. Her endorsement for the 2024 U.S. presidential election even motivated half a million people look into voting.
If you want to check out Law & Order: SVU's newest season with or without Taylor Swift, Season 26 debuts on Thursday, October 3 at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, between Law & Order Season 24 at 8 p.m. ET and Found Season 2 at 10 p.m. ET, the latter of which is replacing Law & Order: Organized Crime. You can also find the first 25 seasons of Mariska Hargitay's show streaming with a Hulu subscription and/or a Peacock subscription, with new episodes streaming next day on Peacock.