![Reid Scott’s Final ‘Law & Order’ Run Officially Begins With a High-Tech Murder [Exclusive]](https://theworldscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Reid-Scotts-Final-‘Law-Order-Run-Officially-Begins-With.jpg "Reid Scott’s Final ‘Law & Order’ Run Officially Begins With a High-Tech Murder [Exclusive]")
The feeling is bittersweet with the return of Law & Order for its 26th season on NBC. Although fans of Dick Wolf's flagship legal drama procedural hav
The feeling is bittersweet with the return of Law & Order for its 26th season on NBC. Although fans of Dick Wolf‘s flagship legal drama procedural have much to look forward to with the fall premiere tomorrow, it’ll also be the beginning of the end of Reid Scott‘s time as Senior Detective Vincent Riley. Deadline delivered a shocker earlier this year with the report that Scott would be departing the latest run after three seasons, only getting a few episodes to wrap up Riley’s arc on the show before James Badge Dale takes his place on the roster. Before he can say goodbye, though, he and Detective Walker (David Ajala) have a few more cases to solve.
After Season 25 ended with the detectives and lawyers of the 27th precinct taking on a corrupt judge, Season 26 will kick off with a timely and disordered case. “Ghost in the Machine” sends Riley and Walker on a collision course with the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence after a software engineer is found murdered. It’ll be one of Riley’s last mysteries to solve, and it’s a grisly one that’s sure to have a lot of suspects and directly confront the heated climate around AI and the people responsible for pushing the technology to its limits. Collider is excited to share an exclusive sneak peek showing the detectives on the scene.
Riley and Walker are given the briefing on their man, Steven Kelly, as they walk up to the body on the sand. Whoever killed the engineer was strategic about it, picking an area that, while public, has no cameras that could point to a perpetrator. The suspect was also able to get very close to him, as Walker immediately notices with the gunshot wound to the back of his head. All they have to go on for witnesses is a jogger who called the police after hearing a firearm go off and finding the man already dead with somebody fleeing “across the FDR, heading toward Alphabet City” in a blue New York Empires cap. They soon learn that Kelly worked for Advanced Alignment, an AI giant on par with Anthropic or OpenAI. Reid, evidently, doesn’t think too highly of them, but for the time being, they have no idea whether this is indeed someone disgruntled by the rise of AI, or if this attack goes even higher.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes
Which Iconic Fandom Should You Join?
Harry Potter · Lord of the Rings · Star Wars · Star Trek
Eight forthright questions about how you actually are: what you put on when you need cheering up, how deep you go into the things you love, what you argue about, what you keep on your shelf. Answer them and we will tell you where you belong. Four of the biggest fandoms on earth are taking novel members, and they could not be more different from one another.
Harry Potter(Wizarding World)
Lord of the Rings(Middle-earth)
Star Wars(A Galaxy Far Away)
Star Trek(The Final Frontier)
FIND YOUR PEOPLE →
01
What do you put on when you need cheering up?
Nobody is brave about this one.
AThe same thing I have watched a hundred times.
BSomething long, tardy and pretty.
CSomething gigantic and thunderous with a great score.
DOne clever episode of something hopeful.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
How deep do you go into something you love?
There is no shallow end here, only different deep ends.
AI know every character and all the gossip.
BI have read the appendices and studied the maps.
CI have a ranked opinion on every instalment.
DI want to know how the world actually works.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
What do you and your friends actually argue about?
Every fandom has one argument it has been having for years.
AWhich one of us is which type.
BWhether the adaptation got it right.
CWhether the novel stuff ruined the ancient stuff.
DWhether the right thing was actually done.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you feel about a room full of strangers?
Every one of these comes with a very gigantic room.
AGreat, and I will know everybody by the end.
BFine, as long as they take it seriously.
CBrilliant, especially if there is something to dress up for.
DHappy, provided the conversation is engaging.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
Where would you rather spend a week?
Pick on instinct rather than on budget.
AAn ancient castle somewhere rainy.
BMountains, long walks, no phone signal.
CA desert with an unbelievable night sky.
DA city built around a university.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What do you believe about people, mostly?
All four of these stories have an answer, and they disagree.
AMost of them turn out better than expected.
BThe smallest ones decide the biggest things.
CAnybody can change, even very tardy on.
DWe work it out if we keep talking.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
What is actually on your shelf?
Look over at it before you answer.
AEverything I owned when I was twelve.
BHardbacks, in order, read more than once.
CFigures, posters, and a few things still boxed.
DBooks about how things work, plus a model or two.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What do you actually want from a story?
Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your fandom.
AA place I can go back to whenever I need it.
BA world complete enough to get lost in.
CSomething huge I can share with everybody.
DAn idea that changes how I think.
REVEAL MY FANDOM →
Membership Confirmed
Your Fandom Is…
Four of the largest communities on the planet, and four completely
different reasons to belong to one. Here is yours, what it would give you, and the argument you
would be having within a week.
Harry Potter
You belong to the fandom that is really about comfort. Hogwarts
works on people because it is a place rather than a plot, and the pull is not the wizard war
so much as the corridors, the food, the weather and the sense that somebody is expecting
you.
- You are drawn to belonging, which is why this fandom sorted itself into houses within
about five minutes and has never stopped. - This is the most social of the four, and the one most likely to know which type every
single person in your life would be. - The books are built to be reread rather than analysed, and rereading is exactly what you
do with things you love. - The novel HBO series is bringing the whole thing back one book at a time, which means the
arguments are about to start all over again.
Lord of the Rings
You belong to the deepest fandom on this list, the one where
somebody has always read further than you and is quietly delighted to say so. Middle-earth
rewards patience more than any other world in popular culture.
- You like the sense that the story you are reading is only the perceptible part of something
enormous, which is precisely how Tolkien built it. - This fandom takes adaptation seriously to a degree that other fandoms find slightly
alarming, and it has good reasons for that. - Your favourite thing about the books is probably the bit that is not action at all,
which is the walking, the songs and the long goodbyes. - Nobody here thinks heroism belongs to the powerful, and the whole story exists to make
that argument.
Star Wars
You belong to the loudest and largest tent of the four, the one
where three generations are all watching the same thing and none of them agree about any of
it. That disagreement is not a flaw in this fandom, it is the main activity.
- You want something you can share with absolutely everybody, from a six year ancient to a
grandparent, and this is the only one on the list that really does that. - Nobody argues like Star Wars fans argue, and the argument has been running since roughly
1980 with no sign of resolution. - The pull here is sensory before it is narrative, since it is the sound design, the score
and the look of a used and dented galaxy. - You would be first in the queue, in costume, with forceful opinions and a genuinely good
time.
Star Trek
You belong to the thinking fandom, the one that turns up for the
argument rather than the explosion. Trek has always been a series of ethical problems in
space, and the people who love it love being asked what they would have done.
- You are an optimist in a way that is currently unfashionable, and this is the only major
franchise still willing to say the future might be better. - The best episodes are the ones where nobody fires anything, which is a sentence that
makes perfect sense to this fandom and to nobody else. - Starfleet Academy brought the franchise back to a classroom in 2026, which is
appropriate, because Trek has always been a bit of a seminar. - You would want the conversation afterwards more than the episode itself, and here you
will always find somebody willing to have it.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
‘Law & Order’s Season 26 Premiere Will Wrestle With AI
The entire Law & Order team will be grappling with AI in some way during the episode. Baxter (Tony Goldwyn) will be busy trying to find justice in a groundbreaking case, but he faces complications in confronting a technology that is evolving at such a rapid pace that the law can’t seem to keep up. Wolf’s series hasn’t been afraid to address the most hot-button contemporary issues, and the hope is for the premiere to hit right at the heart of the debate over whether AI has a utilize for humanity or if its dangers outweigh its value. While Scott is wrapping up his time in the 2-7, the rest of the cast will remain intact, with Hugh Dancy, Odelya Halevi, and Maura Tierney also joining Goldwyn and Ajala.
Law & Order Season 26 premieres on NBC tomorrow, October 8. Check out our exclusive sneak peek in the player above.
Release Date
September 13, 1990
Showrunner
Rick Eid
Directors
Constantine Makris, Edwin Sherin, Jace Alexander, David Platt, Matthew Penn, Martha Mitchell, Don Scardino, Christopher Misiano, Jean de Segonzac, Michael Pressman, Daniel Sackheim, Alex Chapple, Fred Berner, Fred Gerber, Gloria Muzio, James Frawley, Jim McKay, Vincent Misiano, Michael W. Watkins, Vern Gillum, Alex Hall, Dann Florek, Darnell Martin, David Grossman
Writers
René Balcer, Matt Witten, David Slack, Aaron Zelman, David Wilcox, Morgan Gendel, Pamela J. Wechsler, Lynne E. Litt, Marc Guggenheim, Stephanie Sengupta, Scott Gold, Walon Green, Gerry Conway, Sean Jablonski, Nick Santora, Chris Levinson, Christine Roum, Gordon Rayfield, Hall Powell, Keith Eisner, Julie Martin, Gia Gordon, Joe Gannon, Jonathan Collier
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S. Epatha Merkerson
Lieutenant Anita Van Buren
