Law And Order SVU Seemingly Rips From The Headlines By Tackling Amber Heard And Johnny Depp Trial, New Images Show

One of the biggest celebrity court case stories has been that of Amber Heard and Johnny Depp in recent months. Heard and Depp are currently both in the appeals process after the verdict came down in their infamous defamation court case. Law & Order shows have had a “ripped from the headlines” approach to storytelling for years, and now it looks as if Mariska Hargitay’s SVU spinoff will be tackling a storyline similar to that case. 

We’ve known that both Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Organized Crime have been getting back into production in recent weeks, thanks to delightful social media posts from Mariska Hargitay and her former (and occasionally reunited) onscreen partner Christopher Meloni. This week, however, the Amber Heard and Johnny Depp storyline news broke thanks to scenes that were filmed outside, which saw Hargitay escorting a young woman down a set of stairs while fans held up “team” and “I stand with” signs. 

The Dick Wolf production has yet to confirm this will be an episode similar to the defamation case we saw play out in the courtroom thanks to its televised footage. However, the signage is pretty telling. During the actual Heard and Depp trial, fans held up similar signs. In addition, the hashtags #IStandWithJohnnyDepp and #IStandWithAmberHeard became gathering places on social media during the trial, and similarly seem to be reflected in the SVU crowd signage. Of course, in this case people are standing with “Kelsey” and “Austin.”