No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: Ice-T’s Fin Tutuloa has been pretty MIA on season 27 of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — and there’s a reason.

“It’s just basically business,” Ice-T, 67, explained to TMZ in an interview published on Monday, November 24, of his prolonged absence on the NBC series. “They brought Kelli [Giddish] back, and at the end of the day, they couldn’t really keep both of us on full-time, as far as budget-wise.”

Ice-T noted that NBC producers gave him a heads-up about the casting change, and he signed off on more limited screen time.

“They said, ‘OK, Ice, we’ll have you come in and out this year,’” he claimed, noting, “Everybody wanted Kelli back. [Plus], we’ve got new cops and stuff like that.”

What to Know About ‘Law and Order: SVU' Season 27 After Major Cas

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