Law & Order: SVU season 19 spoilers: How Peter Stone factors in

We’ve already reported that Philip Winchester is going to be coming onto Law & Order: SVU season 19. Now comes the next question: How does Peter Stone factor into the story? We felt that he wasn’t going to be a replacement for Barba, and felt instead that he could be more of a foil for Raul Esparza’s character and the rest of the team. He will bring a new dimension to the show, and will also potentially throw off the SVU team. You get used to working with specific characters, but then a different ADA enters the picture and they all have a different way of doing things.

This sentiment is something that executive producer Michael Chernuchin echoed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

“There’s more than one A.D.A. in New York … They will be antagonists. Philip will come in and he won’t be the nicest person our characters have ever met. What he’s going to be doing, too, is basically bringing all of the franchises into one. He’s connecting Law & Order, the Chicago franchises and now SVU.”

We don’t want anyone to become too unnerved at the sight of the word “antagonists,” given that this is not fully reflective of the relationship that his here between these two characters. We’d look at it more through this lens: Stone likely wants justice in the same way that we’ve seen from Benson and Barba, but he may have different methods of getting it. In reality, there are often very different ideas as to how to deal with a serious problem, and the show seems to just be giving you a good reflection of that. They’re being realistic when it comes to the different egos that are in the room.

If you haven’t seen Chicago Justice, we do think that you’re in for a treat with Stone on this show. Winchester is an outstanding actor, and Chernuchin wrote for him over on that show before coming over to SVU. In general, Dick Wolf and the entire producing team has done a pretty good job of including that show into other editions of the franchise following its cancellation. After all, you’ve got Jon Seda heading back to Chicago PD, and we’d like to think there is a chance we will see some of the other characters here and there down the line. We also want to think that with Chernuchin producing this show and with Rick Eid producing Chicago PD now, there is a chance to do some more crossovers across the board. (For the record, this is something that we asked Eid in a recent interview, which will be posted closer to the Chicago PD premiere on NBC. This is ultimately a network decision, but it’s something that these producers could have some fun with.)

(Photo: NBC.)