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"PinterestFacebookWe&amp;#39;ve had a huge hole in our Stabler-loving hearts ever since Chris Meloni departed Law and Order: SVU after season 12&amp;#8212;and with a lame, written-in explanation that he &amp;quot;resigned&amp;quot; suddenly from the force, no less. (As if he would ever do that to Olivia.) Though we&amp;#39;ve since grown attached to his replacements (Kelli Giddish and the now-departed Danny Pino), our hopes for a Benson-Stabler reunion have still remained strong over the years. And now, showrunner Warren Leight reveals that there have already been talks to bring Stabler back&amp;#8212;and that it could very well happen in the future.\nSVU was just renewed for an 18th season on NBC, but Leight and his writers were already preparing for a series finale just in case they were canceled. Part of their fledgling plans for the series final bow included rounding up former cast members for one last episode, including Richard Belzer (Munch), Pino (Amaro), and&amp;#8212;drum roll please&amp;#8212;Chris Meloni (Stabler, obvi). &amp;quot;If we weren&amp;#39;t coming back, there were a couple of things I was absolutely going to do,&amp;quot; Leighton told The Hollywood Reporter. &amp;quot;Had this been the last episode, we would have tried to bring him [Meloni] back.&amp;quot;\nSince SVU lives to see another season, though, the immediate plans for Stabler&amp;#39;s return are on hold&amp;#8212;but they are not gone forever. &amp;quot;I think if Mariska were to have called him, he would have taken the call,&amp;quot; Leight says of trying to persuade Meloni to come back. &amp;quot;That can be for another day, hopefully a long way off.&amp;quot;\nWe don&amp;#39;t want SVU to end, but we also don&amp;#39;t want to wait too long for these partners to reunite. Perhaps they&amp;#39;ll get bitten by the same nostalgia bug that&amp;#39;s bringing back Full House, Gilmore Girls, and Friends."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/story/how-stabler-might-be-coming-ba>