The long-running Law & Order procedural drama series franchise got a straight-to-series order for a 13 episode first season that will run on America's NBC network.
Law & Order: Hate Crimes from creator and producer Dick Wolf, was co-created by Warren Leight and will be based on New York's real-life Hate Crimes Task Force.
Law & Order: Hate Crimes will be the 7th series in the Law & Order franchise with only Law & Order Special Victims Unit, abbreviated as Law & Order; SVU, still running.
The special unit will be introduced during the second half of the 20th season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
"Law & Order: Hate Crimes is set in New York City, where crimes motivated by discrimination are vigorously investigated by an elite, specially trained team of investigators. Going behind the headlines and viral videos, these diverse, dedicated and passionate detectives will stop at nothing to bring these criminals to justice," says the show according to the press release.
"As with all of my crime shows, I want to depict what’s really going on in our cities and shine a light on the wide-ranging victims and show that justice can prevail," says Dick Wolf in a statement.
"Twenty years ago when SVU began, very few people felt comfortable coming forward and reporting these crimes, but when you bring the stories into people's living rooms – with characters as empathetic as Olivia Benson – a real dialogue can begin. That’s what I hope we can do with this new show in a world where hate crimes have reached an egregious level."
Peter Jankowski and Arthur Forney will also serve as executive producers.
"As Law & Order: SVU enters its remarkable 20th season, it is exciting to get back into business with Dick Wolf on a new Law & Order incarnation that feels extremely timely," says Lisa Katz, co-president of scripted programming at NBC Entertainment, in the statement.
"Considering that last year there was a double-digit rise in hate crimes in our 10 largest cities - the highest total in over a decade - it seemed like this topic is begging to be explored."
