‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 18: Check out new photo of Mariska Hargitay, cast

While not every show these days chooses to put out promotional photos for the cast, we remain happy that “Law & Order: SVU” continues to do so in some capacity. After all, we do feel like it fulfills a couple of different purposes, whether it be giving us members of the press something new to share / post in articles to also demonstrating the passing of time. There is something fun about looking at these photos now versus ones from earlier in the series’ run to see how much things have changed and evolved.

The new season 18 photo above is for the most part pretty simple, given that it revolves around the entire squad sitting down for what seems to be a really odd picture-taking session. We suppose this is further proof that when you are in law enforcement, smiling is not encouraged. As a matter of fact, this crew looks somewhat terrifying, like the sort you would not really want to run into if you were one of the bad guys. Maybe that’s the point!

Anyone, one of the interesting things that “SVU” is doing in comparison to the other Dick Wolf-produced crime shows at NBC is keeping things fairly simple. Kelli Giddish, Raul Esparza, Mariska Hargitay, Ice-T, and Peter Scanavino remain the key members of the cast, and the show hasn’t shown much of an indication that some other regulars are coming into play. It’s done remarkable work with this crew, and hopefully they’ll all continue to be a part of the ensemble for some time to come. (We’re really not that far from season 20, and as we’ve said a few times over now, it’d be really cool to see the show make it there.)

The new season of “SVU” will premiere on NBC come later this month; we’ll have some more news pertaining to the story soon!

(Photo: NBC.)