Law & Order: SVU is staying strong going into the 2026 TV schedule and the new year proper, with the 27th season's winter premiere crossover with Law & Order delivering as much action as ever, with characters from both shows teaming up for a case. After being absent for a good portion of the first half of the season, Ice-T's Fin finally got more screentime, but there was a time the rapper thought for sure that Fin was done.
Ice-T has been on SVU since Season 2, making him one of the longest-running actors in the Law & Order franchise. Fans were a bit concerned that he could be leaving after he didn’t appear in a chunk of Season 27 episodes during the first half, with the series playing it off with the explanation that he suffered an injury in the first episode. Additionally, he was also thinking about retiring, giving even more reason to believe this could be it.
That being said, he did eventually come back before the end of the year, and it was revealed that the show had to cut down on his appearances to bring back Kelli Giddish. Ice-T had no hard feelings over the matter, but he told TV Insider that he remained clueless about what was going on to the point where he thought Fin was being written off:
It was interesting because I had to play a lot of things that I don’t feel. I don’t want to retire. I don’t want to do this, but they write it and then stuff like that. So I had to ask them, ‘Are y’all writing me out of the show? What the fuck’s going on?’ They’re like, “No, Ice, this is just a curve. This is an arc.’ So I was concerned.
Of course, everything with Fin turned out fine. Though it was probably hard to tell what exactly was going to happen, it sounds like it was not fun while he was waiting to find out. SVU has been pretty unpredictable throughout its run, with a handful of actors leaving over the years.
If anything, Ice-T praised his friendship with co-star and lead Mariska Hargitay, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he brought some of his concerns to her:
But me and Mariska, I’ve been with Mariska now 27 years. That’s the longest relationship I’ve had with anybody, day to day, in my life. I’ve got friends I’ve had longer, but I haven’t been with them every single day. So me and Mariska have gotten real close, and she’s a sweetheart. I tell Mariska all the time, ‘I’m so glad I don’t have to lie about you. You are a wonderful person.’ If I had to lie, it would be awful. Then you’d see some acting.
It can be assumed that Ice-T will continue to be in fewer episodes of SVU as the season continues, but at the very least, it seems like Fin is safe for now. Unfortunately, it does sound like no matter how long he’s been on the show for, he’s still worried about getting fired. He doesn’t want to leave any time soon, but when that does eventually happen, he does know how he'd like Fin's ending to go. He will just have to hope that it doesn’t come prematurely.
Fans will have to wait and see what happens with Odafin “Fin” Tutuoloa in new episodes of Law & Order: SVU on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription. You never know what could happen on a show like SVU, and it’s clear that no character is safe, no matter what.
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