Mehcad Brooks leaves “Law & Order”, won't appear on season 25

Detective Jalen Shaw is handing in his badge.

The actor who plays him, Mehcad Brooks, is leaving Law & Order after three seasons on the long-running cop show, Entertainment Weekly can confirm. Brooks will not be in the show's upcoming 25th season.

According toDeadline,which first reported the news onFriday, the parting of ways was mutual, and Brooks is already pursuing other projects. The actor has not yet addressed the news on his social media accounts.

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It's understood that the rest of the Law & Order task force — Tony Goldwyn, Reid Scott, Hugh Dancy, Odelya Halevi, and Maura Tierney — are set to return for the new season, however.

The season 24 finale offered no hints at an exit for Shaw, and Brooks didn't allude to it in a wrap message shared on his Instagram in April. In it, he wrote, "That’s a wrap on Season 24. What an amazing, intense, and deeply grounding experience. It’s a pleasure and privilege to share the screen with such talented and hardworking artists and such an intrepid crew who truly care about what we are co-creating."

Brooks first joined the show in 2022, followingAnthony Anderson'sdeparture. Shaw was partnered up with Scott's Detective Vincent Riley. The casting for a new potential partner is underway, but Brooks previously opened up about his relationship with his onscreen buddy.

"Reid is my brother from another mother, like we were long-lost brothers split up at birth," Brooks told CinemaBlend in October 2024. "I don't know what happened, but I've never gotten along so well with somebody so fast, and he says the same thing."

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Brooks continued, "We have the same sense of humor, both really sarcastic and sardonic. We have a lot of similar interests. We're both Scorpios. We just get along as human beings, and we both work really hard at our jobs."

Craig Blankenhorn/Max

Mehcad Brooks in episode 4 of season 3 of 'And Just Like That'

Aside from Law & Order, Brooks was most recently seen in the ongoing third season of HBO Max's And Just Like That. In it, Brooks plays Marion, a film producer hired by Lisa Todd Wexley (played byNicole Ari Parker). The very married documentarian confesses to Charlotte (Kristin Davis) that she has a "work crush" on Marion and has even had a sexy dream about him.

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He's also set to reprise his role as Jax in New Line's Mortal Kombat II in October.

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