'Law & Order: SVU' stars Mariska Hargitay, Christopher Meloni TV reunion 'now even closer'

Rasha Ali, USA TODAY
·2 min read
There’s a lot that the "Law and Order" series has gotten wrong throughout the years.
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Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni are having some fun teasing "Law & Order: SVU" fans.

In anticipation of their impending TV reunion, Hargitay, 56, and Meloni, 59, shared Instagram photos Friday hinting that the episode everyone's waiting for is just around the corner.

Meloni posted a black and white selfie with Hargitay sitting in the background and captioned it, "We are a little bit closer."

The "Law & Order: SVU" detective played into the game and shared her own selfie, this time with Meloni in the background and wrote "Now even closer..."

Fans of the show including Ariel Winter, Jenni "JWoww" Farley and Michelle Trachtenberg all commented in anticipation.

"WE’RE SO EXCITED," commented the official Instagram page for "Law & Order: SVU."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mariska Hargitay (@therealmariskahargitay)

News of the original "Law & Order" detective pair reuniting onscreen broke in March.

Meloni's Elliot Stabler, the long-running partner of Hargitay's Olivia Benson on "Law & Order: SVU," is returning to NBC in an "SVU" spinoff series, USA TODAY learned.

Stabler will be at the center of a new crime drama from Dick Wolf, the mega-producer behind "SVU," NBC's three "Chicago" procedurals and "FBI" and "FBI: Most Wanted" on CBS. The new show, which does not have a title, was picked up for 13 episodes.

In the spinoff, first reported by Deadline, Stabler heads an organized crime unit in the New York Police Department, which could lead to crossovers with Benson and her "SVU" team. Meloni and Hargitay formed a popular police tandem for 12 seasons on "SVU," now in a record-setting 21st season for a live-action primetime scripted show.

Meloni left "SVU" after Season 12 in 2011. Stabler, whose wife and five children became part of the show's storyline, retired from the force as a way of writing the character off the series at the start of Season 13.

More: 'Law & Order: SVU' spinoff writer fired for threatening to 'light up' looters in Instagram post

Contributing: Bill Keveney

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Law & Order SVU': Mariska Hargitay, Chris Meloni reunion 'closer'