Law & Order: SVU’s Dr Melinda Warner will return again in the new season.
Tamara Tunie first played the medical examiner on the NBC crime drama back in the second season, and although she is no longer a series regular, she has made occasional guest appearances in recent years.
Showrunner Warren Leight confirmed that Tunie will be making another guest appearance in season 22, during the third episode.
“Thrilled to welcome back Tamara Tunie to our third episode, ‘Remember Me in Quarantine’, a story of four college students quarantined in an apartment, whose lives are forever changed by the pandemic,” he told TVLine.
Leight also discussed how the drama will address police brutality and racism in the new season. The first episode will see the main characters angering the public as they investigate a crime.
“In our season premiere ‘Guardians and Gladiators’, our cops arrive at a crime in Central Park where a Black man has already been arrested,” he explained.
“As civilians record their every move on cell phones, the squad makes a series of quick decisions that turn an already enraged community further against them.
“Throughout the episode, and the season, we’ll be looking at how explicit and implicit bias shape the criminal justice system, and also at how public scrutiny and anger, and internal conflicts, affect our squad.”
Season 22 will have a new series regular, as actor Demore Barnes – who plays Deputy Chief Christian Garland – has been promoted to the main cast.