Anthony Anderson joined the revival of the original Law & Order series as its first returning cast member, along with new addition Hugh Dancy.
As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Anderson will reprise the role of Detective Kevin Bernard, which he played in the final three seasons of the long-running NBC show. Law & Order follows New York City police officers as they attempt to gather evidence and solve crimes, as well as the district attorneys who prosecute those cases. On the other end of that duo, Dancy will take on the role of an assistant district attorney, a role previously held by such actors as Steven Hill and Angie Harmon.
The original Law & Order series ran for 20 seasons between 1990 and 2010. Anderson is the first cast member from the original run that was announced as returning for the revival, which is considered the series' 21st season. It was also reported that Anderson only signed a one-year deal. This will also by a return to NBC for the actor, as he has spent the last seven seasons on ABC's Black-ish as Dre Johnson Sr., the patriarch of the Johnson family. The eighth and final season of Black-ish begins airing Jan. 4.
For his part, Dancy also returns to NBC with this role after three seasons as FBI profiler Will Graham on the cult favorite show Hannibal, which was based on the character Hannibal Lecter, made famous in Thomas Harris' novels such as Red Dragon and in turn films based on those novels, like 1991's Silence of the Lambs. Dancy also stars in the upcoming March release film Downton Abbey: A New Era. He joins Jeffrey Donovan (Burn Notice) as the two new Law & Order cast members announced so far.
Created by Dick Wolf, the original series gave rise to the Law & Order franchise. There have been six total spin-off series to date, with a seventh planned for the future. Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Organized Crime are both still currently on air, with Criminal Intent, Trial by Jury, LA and True Crime all having completed their runs. Hate Crimes is the unaired seventh series, which is currently in redevelopment and rumored to be moving to NBC's streaming service Peacock.
The straight-to-series revamp of the original Law & Order is currently set to premiere Feb. 24 on NBC. There is no word yet if other series regulars such as Sam Waterston or S. Epatha Merkerson will return as well.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter