Vincent D’Onofrio Wants Law & Order Return

The Law & Order franchise is still going strong, and this past year delivered its biggest franchise crossover yet. The recently revived original Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU, and Law & Order: Organized Crime all took part in an epic season premiere event, and all three shows are getting new seasons. We’ve seen a number of familiar faces show up over the past few years, but there is one fan-favorite character who has yet to make a return. That would be Vincent D’Onofrio’s Detective Robert Goren, who played the character over the course of 10 seasons of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. During today’s panel at ICCCon, D’Onofrio was asked if there’s a chance of seeing Goren in Law & Order again. While he couldn’t say if it will happen, D’Onofrio is certainly up to return.

“That’s a question for Dick Wolf,” D’Onofrio said. “But c’mon, what am I, an idiot? It’s a great part. He’s a great–look, Dick, seven, eight, nine episodes would be great.” That drew a big response from the crowd, and fans of the franchise would certainly love to see Goren mix it up with the current franchise cast.

On a previous episode of ComicBook Nation, D’Onofrio was asked if he would be interested in reprising the character again. D’Onofrio teased what that might look like if the character returned and how he might have changed in the time between. “Absolutely. 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 Nation. “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,” D’Onofrio said.

The show has brought back other characters for smaller appearances over the past few years, like when Danny Pino made a return as Nick Amaro. We’ve also seen characters get multiple appearances like Raul Esparza’s Rafael Barba, and Dean Winters’ Brian Cassidy previously made a longer return, so bringing someone like Goren back into the mix is something the franchise could very well make happen.

Criminal Intent isn’t around anymore, but Goren could easily be folded into any of the three other shows for a longer-running arc. You could also do a spin-off series with Goren as the lead if you wanted, though Goren and Organized Crime do seem like a match made in heaven. The same with the revived Law & Order series, which would benefit from having such a unique character in the mix to play off the rest of the cast. Not kidding though, I could see Organized Crime getting the most out of a Goren run, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Would you like to see Goren make a return to the franchise? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things Law & Order with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!