Season 22 of Law & Order has enlisted Mortal Kombat actor Mehcad Brooks for a series regular role. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Brooks has joined Law & Order for season 22 after the series was recently revived with its 21st season. The new season brought back stars of the original show like Sam Waterston and Anthony Anderson, but with Anderson departing the series, Brooks has been brought in to fill the gap with his series regular role. All that's known about his role is that he will play a detective.
Starring alongside Brooks in season 22 will be Sam Waterston, Jeffrey Donovan, Camryn Manheim, Hugh Dancy, and Odelya Halevi. The series returned in February to great success, drawing 13 million viewers with its comeback. Created by Dick Wolf, the series originally premiered on NBC back in 1990 before ending its run in 2010 after 20 seasons. While the franchise would live on with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and other spinoff shows, it had seemed that the original Law & Order was finished for more than a decade before there were talks of revisiting the original series in recent years.
Mehcad Brooks made a splash on the big screen last year with his role as Jax in Mortal Kombat, the live-action reboot based on the video game. He is also known for playing James Olsen in the Arrowverse series Supergirl along with main roles in the TV shows Desperate Housewives and Necessary Roughness. His other small screen work includes Boston Public, True Blood, Dollhouse, and My Generation.
Anthony Anderson Only Intended to Return for One Season
Mehcad Brooks is coming in as a void was left by Anthony Anderson leaving the series. As Anderson was one of the stars of the original Law & Order, it certainly helped that he returned for season 21, but Anderson was not planning on sticking around full-time. He had only signed a one-year deal as a favor to Dick Wolf, agreeing to return for one season to get the revival off the ground.
Sam Waterston could have gone that same route, as he had also signed on for one season with the season 21 revival. But Waterston has taken well to his return to the role of Jack McCoy. It has since been confirmed that Waterston will be back in season 22 after choosing to remain on board with the series. That's not only great news for Law & Order fans, but for Wolf as well, who spoke about how important Jack McCoy was to the series when Waterston's return was first announced.
“Since day one, Sam has had perfect pitch when it comes to Jack McCoy as a character who both reflects and expands our ability to understand the law,” Wolf said. “He is the ultimate conscience of the show and I look forward to him emulating the career of New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, who served until he was 90.”