If Sergeant Fin Tutuola’s reduced presence in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 27 left you cold, Ice-T has news that should warm you up. The character coming back in a big way in Season 28.
Ice-T shared the update in a new episode of The TMZ Podcast, revealing he’ll be back in every episode when SVU returns.
“Last year, what happened was, you know, they brought Kelli Giddish back. So they told me, you know, basically, we’re going to bring Kelli Giddish back. We’re going to bring your scenes down a little bit,” the rapper-turned-actor explained. “I asked them, I said, are you kicking me off the show? They said, no, we’re just going to move some things around budget-wise, blah, blah, blah.”
Ice-T said he took his Season 27 part-time status in stride. “Now, somebody like me, free time — people think, oh, they take you off the show, you lose money. No, I make money because now I have time to do other things. When you have to put in five days a week on a show, it kind of restricts my hustle.”
That free time will be at a premium in Season 28, however. “So this next season, I’m going to be in every episode,” Ice-T said. “But it was one of those things where the boss comes to you, and you don’t go, well, I’ve been on here 27 seasons, you go and do this? You know, I got it. I got it. It’s all good. So it wasn’t because of Kelli. It was just the way they moved. And I was more concerned getting to Season 28. I didn’t care about that. I was just like, let’s just keep going. I want to go to Season 30.”
Ice-T has played Fin for a quarter-century now, and he recently made TV history. In February, production company Wolf Entertainment announced on X that Ice-T’s 400-plus-episode SVU tenure means that he has played a single role for more episodes than any other scripted TV actor in U.S. primetime history.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Season 28 Premiere, Thursday, October 8, 9/8c, NBC