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See a First Look at Benson and Carisi on Set for SVU Season 26 (VIDEO)

Filming is officially underway for the upcoming season of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

By Elizabeth Logan

We are so back. Almost.

How to Watch

Watch Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Thursdays at 9/8c on NBC and next day on Peacock.

Though NBC's Law & Order Thursdays line-up won't return until the fall, the cast of Special Victims Unit is already back in action, celebrating their first day on set.

Benson and Carisi are back together to start Season 26

In a 12-second TikTok, Captain Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and attorney Sonny Carisi (Peter Scanavino) seamlessly transitioned from April 2024 — their last day filming the previous season — to July 2024 with the "jumping over the camera" trend that's popular for showing a before-and-after.

"We're so back," they declare in the video, and the sight of Benson with her arm around Carisi at the precinct is enough to get the fans so excited. Per the caption, SVU will return for its 26th season on Thursday, October 3rd.

@nbc Next stop: #SVU Season 26! 🏃 Jump into the epic return Thursday, October 3rd on NBC #lawandorder ♬ original sound - NBC

RELATED: Peter Scanavino With Brown, Chin-Length Hair Will Make You Do a Double Take

It's been a decade of Carisi on SVU

Dominick "Sonny" Carisi joined the squad in Season 16, making the upcoming year his 11th on the show. It's been quite the journey. Though he started as an investigator, Carisi is now an ADA, and more importantly, Detective Amanda Rollins' (Kelli Giddish) partner-turned-husband.

Asked by TODAY  if he initially saw Rollins and Carisi as a couple, Scanavino said, "I always thought that there was something there that I kind of picked up on in the episodes, but then it was also if you do it, you make the leap and you make them a couple — then where do you kind of go from there? But I’m glad they waited for so long before they actually did it. It had such a good payoff, but I don’t know — I always saw they got along well. And I always thought that there was maybe something else to that relationship."

Sonny Carisi and Amanda Rollins on Law and Order SVU

RELATED: Benson & Carisi's First SVU Scene Together Shows How Far They've Come

The three friends — Giddish, Harigtay, and Scanavino — recently got together off-screen for a beach walk for Hargitay's foundation, the Joyful Heart Foundation, which raises money and awareness to support victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

"My peeps coming out to support our 5th annual JHF Beachwalk. These two always have my back. And I have theirs," Hargitay captioned a picture she posted on July 17. She literally had their backs, too, with an arm around each of her friends as they smiled on the sand.