Stephanie March is returning to Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Alexandra Cabot, eight years after her last appearance, according to Entertainment Weekly’s October 23 report.
The actress will appear in the ninth episode of Season 28, TVLine also reported. An airdate for that installment has not been announced.
The casting reports did not disclose what brings Cabot back.
SVU airs Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, with episodes streaming the following day on Peacock.
March Had Said the Story Would Matter to Her Return
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Asked about playing Cabot again at the show’s 25th-anniversary celebration on January 16, 2024, March told People, “I mean, I wouldn’t say no to the opportunity and cash prizes! Yes!”
Speaking to the same outlet at a City Harvest gala on April 22, 2025, she added, “I think it would depend on the story, but they’ve got some good writers. Never say never, right?”
March also suggested that fans could write in to support a comeback. She said she continued seeing former castmates Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni and BD Wong regularly during her time away from the series.
Cabot’s Career Took Her From the Courtroom to Witness Protection
March made her debut in the Season 2 premiere, “Wrong Is Right,” in 2000. Cabot was the assistant district attorney working with Olivia Benson and the detectives on the cases they brought to prosecutors.
Her first departure came in Season 5’s “Loss,” when a cartel prosecution put her life in danger. After a shooting, Benson and Elliot Stabler believed Cabot had died. The episode’s final scenes revealed that her death had been staged so she could enter witness protection.
March explained her initial departure in a 2004 TV Guide interview, saying she wanted to try other work before becoming too comfortable. “Perhaps all I need is a long break,” she said. Cabot resurfaced in the Season 6 episode “Ghost” in 2005 to testify against the man who had tried to kill her.
March also carried the character into NBC’s 2006 series Conviction, which followed prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office and ran for one season of 13 episodes.
Later SVU appearances brought Cabot back to her ADA duties during Seasons 10 and 11. She subsequently left to work with an International Criminal Court task force, before making further appearances in Season 13.
Cabot’s Last Episode Put Her on the Other Side of Benson’s Search
“Sunk Cost Fallacy,” Season 19’s 19th episode, aired April 18, 2018. By then, Cabot had retired from her prosecutor’s job. Benson’s search for a missing mother and daughter brought her into contact with her former colleague, who was working with a network helping women escape abusive partners and build new lives.
March told TV Insider before the episode aired that an older Cabot saw “more gray and less black and white in the law.” She also recalled filming her reunion with Hargitay in an IKEA parking lot in Brooklyn the day before a blizzard.
The cold prompted Hargitay to ask, “Couldn’t we have met up in a department store?!” Asked in that interview whether she wanted to reach 100 appearances on the show, March said it was a milestone she would like to achieve.
Stabler Will Return for the 600th Episode Earlier in the Season
Meloni will reprise Elliot Stabler in the milestone episode, which EW reports is scheduled for November 12 and is the sixth installment of Season 28.
Meloni’s last SVU appearance was in the Season 27 premiere, “In the Wind,” in which Stabler and Benson attended Donald Cragen’s wake.
Kelli Giddish, who plays Amanda Rollins, confirmed his participation in an October 9 interview with NBC Insider. She also said series creator Dick Wolf visited the studio while the cast filmed the landmark episode.