{"id":256390,"date":"2025-09-26T15:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256390\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T15:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T15:20:17","slug":"svu-kills-off-original-cast-member-in-season-27-premiere-fans-react-to-gut-punch-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/256390\/","title":{"rendered":"SVU Kills Off Original Cast Member In Season 27 Premiere — Fans React to ‘Gut Punch’ Death"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viewers reacted with shock as one character who’s been part of the show since Season 1 was killed off between seasons — following a major cast shakeup on the series.<\/p>\n

Law & Order: SVU killed off one of its own last night … and fans were shocked!<\/p>\n

The Season 27 premiere on Thursday night began with Mariska Hargitay’s<\/strong><\/a> Olivia Benson showing up to a bar for a memorial — a memorial for former captain Donald Cragen (Dann Florek). The memorial included a few special cameos, as psychiatrist George Huang (BD Wong) and detective Brian Cassidy (Dean Winters) were also both in attendance.<\/p>\n

“He was the best boss I ever had,” Benson said at one point, adding, “Everything I know about being a captain, I learned from him.”<\/p>\n

Later speaking with Chris Meloni’s<\/strong><\/a> Elliot Stabler\u00a0outside of the memorial, she told him, “I feel like we’re entering the ‘all our friends are dying’ era, as he added, “We had a pretty good run there.”<\/p>\n

Cragen was seen in a video shown at the memorial, appearing to be from a retirement party.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a long road. It hasn’t always been pleasant, and it certainly hasn’t always been easy,” he said in the footage. “I lived for my job, I don’t think that surprises anybody, and I can’t imagine my life any other way. It has been a privilege to have been able to serve with you.”<\/p>\n

The cause of his death wasn’t disclosed. Prior to this episode, Cragen last appeared on SVU back in 2021; he also appeared in a 2024 episode of Meloni’s Organized Crime spinoff.<\/p>\n

Florek was actually on set for the memorial, as seen in photos with both Hargitay and Meloni shared to Meloni’s Instagram page back in August.<\/p>\n

Fans reacted with shock to Cragen’s death, which followed the exits of Octavio Pisano\u00a0and\u00a0Juliana Aid\u00e9n Martinez, who both left the show after Season 26.<\/p>\n

See some of the most liked responses to the episode below!<\/p>\n

\"TMZ\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Everything That’s Been Canceled, Renewed, Rebooted Or Revived In 2025 – Click image to open gallery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viewers reacted with shock as one character who’s been part of the show since Season 1 was killed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":256391,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[134965,134966,134967,134968,134964,171,134969,18585,80537,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-256390","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-chris-meloni","9":"tag-dann-florek","10":"tag-dean-winters","11":"tag-detective-brian-cassidy","12":"tag-donald-cragen","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-george-huang","15":"tag-mariska-hargitay","16":"tag-olivia-benson","17":"tag-tv","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115271278536983155","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}