The ongoing Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) strike has caused many movies and TV shows to be delayed, but Season 23 of the crime drama Law & Order will reportedly be released ahead of schedule.
NBC's Law & Order first graced television screens in September 1990 and ran for 20 full seasons all the way into 2009.
However, after multiple spin-offs such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime remained successful well into the 2010s and early 2020s, the original flagship series returned in 2022 when Season 21 was officially released.
When Will Law and Order's New Season Release?
According to a recent report from Deadline, development on Season 23 of NBC's Law & Order series is officially on the way, and networks hope it can be released sometime in late February 2024 or early March 2024.
Due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, this new development comes as a bit of a surprise seeing as how a deal has not been made between the actors' guild and the AMPTP, and Law & Order Season 23 will still need to be filmed once the strike ends.
This potential release date is also a pleasant surprise for fans because Law & Order has historically released most of its seasons in September, so this February date is much earlier than expected.
However, when the show made a comeback in 2022 with Season 20, the premiere episode aired on February 24, 2022, so there has been a recent instance where a Law & Order season came out sometime other than the fall season.
Season 22, though, came out a bit later that year, specifically on September 22, 2022, so many fans believed it would get the show back on track by releasing a new season every September.
It is worth noting that Season 23 of Law & Order will not contain as many episodes as fans are used to. Many seasons of the show historically contain at least 20 episodes (Season 22 included), but due to the ongoing strike and the small window of time that Season 23 will be able to film, it is likely that it will only include 10 episodes.
However, Season 21, which was, once again, the first season of the show to come out since 2009, also only included 10 episodes, so Law & Order as a whole is no stranger to having a shortened season.
The Deadline report also stated that networks were hoping for the actors' strike to already be over by this point in time, and considering that it is still ongoing, the hope now is that it will end sometime within the next week or so in order for shows like Law & Order to begin filming before November is over.
If that were to happen, it sounds as though it would be possible for Season 23 to contain 13 episodes. If the strike continues for a bit longer, though, and the show won't be able to begin filming until the beginning of 2024, fans will only be treated to a 10-episode season.
How Will an Early 2024 Release Affect Season 24?
Since the current plan is for Law & Order Season 23 to be released in February, many fans are probably wondering if they will have to wait until September 2025 to see Season 24.
While it is not at all possible to know exactly what the network's plans are going forward, Seasons 21 and 22 of Law & Order went through a similar release pattern to what is happening with Seasons 23 and 24.
As mentioned, Season 21 was released on February 24, 2022 and was only 10 episodes in length, and Season 22 was released that exact same year on September 22, 2022.
If Season 23 of Law & Order does end up being released in February 2024 as the network plans for it to, then fans may actually get to see Season 24 as early as September 2024, just seven months later.
Season 21 and 22 episodes of Law & Order came out on Thursdays, so a specific prediction for when Season 24 could be released is either Thursday, September 19, 2024 or Thursday, September 26, 2024.
