Detectives Joe Velasco and Kate Silva are about to complete their final missions.
Actors Octavio Pisano and Juliana Aidén Martinez will not return to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit after season 26, Entertainment Weekly can confirm. The long-running procedural has not yet been renewed for a 27th season, but if water is still wet and the sky is still blue, the enduringly successful spinoff of the Dick Wolf series that started it all will be back, only without two of its star detectives.
Pisano joined the main cast of SVU for its 23rd season in 2021. His scarred and rowdy undercover Detective Velasco was brought on to replace Katriona “Kat” Tamin (Jamie Gray Hyder) after she took leave following the season 23 premiere.
Martinez followed in 2024, joining the 26th season, which is currently still airing. Her Detective Silva was transferred from Brooklyn’s Homicide Division and quickly befriended Velasco, meaning Martinez and Pisano have so far shared many scenes.
SVU broke a major record in 2019 when it was renewed for a 21st season: The series officially passed its anchor program, Law & Order, and the iconic Western serial Gunsmoke to become the longest-running primetime drama in TV history.
While only one star has remained among the expansive ensemble cast since its first season — series star Mariska Hargitay, who celebrated her 27th anniversary with the franchise in this year — most of the current cast of the spinoff have a good number of years under their belts. That being said, Martinez isn’t alone in dipping after a single season, following in the footsteps of Michelle Hurd (season 1), Michaela McManus (season 10), and Molly Burnett (season 24).
Virginia Sherwood/NBC via Getty
The cast of ‘Law & Order: SVU,’ including Octavio Pisano, Juliana Martinez, and Mariska Hargitay
SVU has not seen a major cast exit in a number of years. But the flagship series suffered two major losses in 2024, with the departures of Lt. Kate Dixon (Camryn Manheim) and D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston, who appeared on over 400 episodes of the series).
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Law & Order: Special Victims Unit will air the penultimate episode of season 26, “Aperture,” on Thursday. The final episode, hauntingly titled “Post-Rage,” will air the following week, on May 15.
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