Vincent D'Onofrio Says He's Open to New Law & Order Crossover Appearance

Vincent D'Onofrio, the Daredevil and Hawkeye star who was a primetime staple for a decade as Detective Robert Goren on Law & Order: Criminal Intent, says he would be open to the possibility of appearing reprising the role, if the opportunity were to arise. D'Onofrio played the role from 2001 until 2011, and at one point worked himself to the point where he collapsed on set and was diagnosed with exhaustion, leading to the creation of a second team of detectives to give Goren (and D'Onofrio) a little more downtime. In 2011, he left the series, along with his onscreen partner Kathryn Erbe and their supervisor Eric Bogosian.  

His comments come as Law & Order's original series is set to return for a 21st season on NBC in February. One of the great brands in broadcast TV, Law & Order would be the longest live-action, scripted primetime show in U.S. television history, if not for its spinoff, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. To have numerous shows all running for more than ten years under the same production team and banner is wild, especially when you consider that the world the shows take place in actually goes all the way back to 1990, and crossed over with non-Law & Order-branded series like Homicide: Life on the Street.

"I've made it clear to Dick Wolf that I would come back if he wanted to do a streaming six to ten or 13 episodes, I would be totally into it," D'Onofrio told ComicBook. "To play a more mature Robert Goren would be really fun, and Warren Leight, who writes Special Victims Unit, was one of my favorite writers on Criminal Intent. I think he would be great, and also Chris Brancado, who writes The Godfather of Harlem, we first met on the last eight episodes of Law & Order. Yeah, I'd like to revisit it, but that's up to Dick Wolf. I've made it very clear to him that I would, so that's up to him, I really have no say in that."

Besides returning star Sam Waterston, Law & Order's return will star returning star Anthony Anderson (black-ish) as Det. Kevin Bernard; Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) a police officer; Hugh Dancy (Hannibal, The Path) as an assistant district attorney; Camryn Manheim (The Practice) as Lt. Kate Dixon; and Oldelya Halevi (Good Trouble) as assistant district attorney Samantha Maroun.