<p id=”par-1_64″><em><a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/tag/law-and-order-svu/”>Law & Order SVU</a> </em>star <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/mariska-hargitay-kelli-giddish-reunite-svu-set-ahead-season-26-premiere.html/”>Mariska Hargitay reunited with Kelli Giddish</a> not too long ago during the show’s season 26 premiere. But Giddish found out that a lot changed for her character, Amanda Rollins, since the last time she was on set. Rollins was in a position to go after a new type of criminal who committed crimes Giddish had never even heard of.</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-how-kelli-giddish-felt-about-amanda-rollins-new-job”>How Kelli Giddish felt about Amanda Rollins’ new job</h2>
<figure class=”wp-block-image size-full” id=”emb-1″><img decoding=”async” src=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Law-Order-SVU-Kelli-Giddish.webp?strip=all&quality=80″ alt=’Kelli Giddish attends the “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” 25th Anniversary Celebration in a black dress.’ class=”wp-image-3764531″><figcaption class=”wp-element-caption”>Kelli Giddish | Arturo Holmes/WireImage</figcaption></figure>
<p id=”par-2_92″>Giddish’s Rollins wasn’t completely satisfied with the happy ending she’d earned a couple of seasons ago on <em>SVU</em>. As fans might remember, Rollins decided to leave her team for a quiet life as a criminology professor in season 24. This was the showrunners’ way of writing Giddish off the show after <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/kelli-giddish-leaving-law-order-svu.html/”>she decided to leave</a> the long-running procedural. Giddish and Rollins wouldn’t stay away from <em>SVU </em>for long, however. They both made sporadic reappearances in the series. Rollins’ infrequent returns to <em>SVU </em>eventually saw the character being roped back into law enforcement.</p>
<p id=”par-3_20″>In an interview with <a href=”https://ew.com/law-and-order-svu-kelli-giddish-teases-return-interview-8729421#:~:text=Kelli%20Giddish%3A%20Well%2C%20it%20was,a%20really%20interesting%20way%20in.”>Entertainment Weekly</a>, Giddish revealed why she made yet another return on season 26 of the show.</p>
<p id=”par-4_56″>“Well, it was home for such a long time and I so enjoy being invited back to go and play with all the people that I love. And the writers had a really good idea about making Rollins a sergeant at the NYPD Intelligence Bureau, which I thought was a really interesting way in,” she said.</p>
<p id=”par-5_38″>Being a sergeant required Rollins to pursue a new breed of bad guys than she did as Olivia Benson’s partner in <em>SVU</em>. When Giddish heard the type of crime Rollins would be solving, the actor couldn’t believe it.</p>
<p id=”par-6_121″>“It’s about crime tourists, which I had never even heard of,” Giddish said in an interview with <a href=”https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/svu-kelli-giddish-rollins-return-1236030695/”>The Hollywood Reporter</a>. “But it’s a real thing where people come into a town, they do their crimes, they rob, and then they’re on a plane 48 hours later. I was like, ‘that sounds really smart.’ So you have to be even smarter than them to catch them, which is, of course, alluring to me. Rollins is now a sergeant in a totally different division. I get to play up her curiosity and her desire to catch the bad guy, but in a totally different way, because now it’s not just rapists that she’s going after. It seemed like a natural progression for her.”</p>
<h2 class=”wp-block-heading” id=”h-kelli-giddish-promised-fans-amanda-rollins-new-position-wouldn-t-ruin-her-happy-ending”>Kelli Giddish promised fans Amanda Rollins’ new position wouldn’t ruin her happy ending</h2>
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<iframe title=’Law and Order SVU 26×03 Promo “Divide and Conquer” (HD) ft. Kelli Giddish’ width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/BiZJW6oxh2I?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-7_68″>Giddish’s Rollins was in a very healthy place personally and professionally when she first left <em>SVU</em>. She found peace with a family she was raising with her on-screen husband Dominick Carsi. However, reentering the police force as a sergeant meant Giddish might face dangers just as bad, if not worse, than the threats she encountered in <em>SVU</em>. Still, she reassured fans that Rollins’ happy ending would remain intact.</p>
<p id=”par-8_81″><em>“</em>No, she is happily married,” Rollins said. “She has a new baby, so she’s got three kids. I think her relationship with her mom is a little better and her relationship with Benson as always, it’s always developing. I think her having such a solid base with Carisi makes a huge difference in the choices that she feels like she’s able to make and how emboldened she feels to take her life into her hands and make some good, still interesting decisions.”</p>
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<iframe title=”Rollins’ Top 12 Moments | NBC’s Law & Order: SVU” width=”925″ height=”520″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/9lzICgZum_w?feature=oembed” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<p id=”par-9_14″>Giddish further reassured fans that Rollins hadn’t changed that much despite her new role.</p>
<p id=”par-10_89″>“It’s like everyone is just so used to the way things are that no, it doesn’t change her right now. But it is interesting that she’s now talking to the NYPD brass,” she added. “You see her up on these platforms giving information to the rest of the New York Police Department, and she’s got a very specialized outlook and very specialized information that’s very valuable to the rest of the police department. So that promotion makes sense with how much higher up she is within the police department.”</p>
<p id=”par-11_36″>Giddish also didn’t rule out returning to the series after her most recent episode. With as many <a href=”https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/law-order-svu-before-she-was-amanda-rollins-kelli-giddish-had-another-surprising-role-in-the-series.html/”>surprising supporting roles Giddish had</a> on <em>SVU</em>, maybe she might play a new character on the show one day.</p>