'Law & Order: SVU': ADAs Stephanie March and Diane Neal Returning

NBC

Stephanie March, left, and Diane Neal

Actresses Stephanie March and Diane Neal are returning to NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for the show’s 13th season.

The duo joins Mariska Hargitay, who is set to return for the show’s full 22-episode season.

The news comes a week after the long-running procedural added former Cold Case co-star Danny Pino and Chase actress Kelli Giddish to the cast as detectives. March, who played ADA Alexandra Cabot for seven seasons, and Neal, who has played ADA Casey Novak for six, will be back for an undetermined number of episodes this fall.

Chris Meloni announced in late May that he’d be moving on after 12 seasons with the series. The actor is in talks to transition to the big screen with a role in Man of Steel.

At NBC’s May upfront presentation for advertisers in New York, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said that the network had plans to "reset the tone" of the series. With new showrunner Warren Leight replacing Neal Baer this season, the stories would "still be compelling but a little more grounded," he said.

With Law & Order: Los Angeles canceled this spring, SVU remains as the lone L&O installment in Dick Wolf's storied franchise on network television.

Additional reporting by Lesley Goldberg.

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