Actor exits Law & Order: SVU

Warning: Spoilers!

After long-running cast members have exited shows including Grey’s Anatomy and The Good Wife, another has departed Law and Order: SVU.

Danny Pino (pictured, top right) who has played Detective Amaro since 2011 has had final episode screen in the US overnight.

Executive producer Warren Leight told TVGuide.com it was a bittersweet ending.

Why was now the right time for Pino to leave the show?
Warren Leight: It’s hard because I’m a hoarder and I adore Danny. But we explored a lot of facets about him and the reality is that the anger he’s occasionally been unable to control has put him in a bad place at the NYPD. [Benson] is looking for a No. 2 and he wants it — Finn doesn’t want it, Rollins doesn’t — and he got shot down very quickly. These days, there is so much attention to police abuse of power that a guy like Amaro, who has crossed a line a few times, is basically dead-ended. The best that could happen to a detective like him right now is that they let him play out the string with no possibility of advancement and that didn’t seem like something his character would want. His marriage has also fallen apart, but his daughter has moved out West, this other son of his from a prior relationship has moved out West, so there’s not much keeping him [in New York]. It seemed to be, in a strange way, right for Amaro to start fresh somewhere else. It’s not to say any of us enjoys it, but it seems like that’s where the story was going and I think all of the actors felt like the exit was honored.

Will his exit be addressed in the premiere next season?
Leight: It’s noticed, but as is usually the case, the first episode of the season has such a pace to it that you don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it. The season starts with a pretty dark episode, a two-parter, in pursuit for a bad guy with a lot of resources. But there are moments when you feel his absence.

This episode will likely be at least 10 weeks away for Australian viewers.