When 9-1-1 returns in fall 2025, there will be a major change in the 118, something that the end of Season 8 did not address: Who will be the next captain, following the heartbreaking, tragic death of Bobby Nash (Peter Krause)?
Following Bobby’s death in Season 8 Episode 15, showrunner Tim Minear told TV Insider that wasn’t something that would be answered just yet. We knew it wouldn’t be until Season 9 that we’d learn the answer, though the discussions did begin onscreen, with Hen (Aisha Hinds) turning down the job offer. Now, in a new interview with Principle Magazine, Oliver Stark has revealed that filming on the new season begins “in about a month,” and while he has yet to read a script, he does have an idea about what to expect.
“It’s gonna be interesting in the sense that at the end of Season 8, we lost Peter Krause’s character, [Bobby]. I think Season 9 is gonna be about rebuilding and growing from that, seeing how it’s possible to grow from that, and restructuring of the 118, which is the firehouse in the show, and seeing how everybody can kinda come together and try and move forward,” he shared.
That’s going to be especially true for Buck, for whom Bobby was a mentor and who wrestled with the captain’s farewell words to him following his death. “You’re going to be okay, Buck. Remember that. They’re going to need you. I love you, kid,” Bobby said. It sounds like we could continue to see Buck taking those words to heart.
“Bobby was so instrumental to who Buck was on the show, and I really wanna see him carry that proudly and feel like he’s doing justice to all the things that he learned through Captain Nash,” Stark told the mag. “I want him to carry the banner and help the younger firefighters around him. We have a couple on the show, and so to almost step into that mentor role that Bobby was for Buck, I think it’s time for him to maybe start doing that for some others.”
If we do see that, it could be the early stages of seeing Buck begin to be ready to one day be captain. It’s something that he has wanted in the past when there needed to be someone to fill in temporarily while Bobby was away, but the captain hadn’t thought he was ready. And Stark told TV Insider after the Season 8 finale — which seemed to be setting Chimney (Kenneth Choi) up to be the 118’s next captain — that he doesn’t think that time is here yet.
“It’s a job that Buck probably sees himself one day hoping to do, but I don’t think he would feel comfortable wanting that position now. I think he looks at Hen and Chimney and he’s like, ‘Those are the people that I look up to.’ They’re every bit cut from the same cloth as Bobby was, and I think he’d have nothing but admiration and respect for Chimney in the role,” he said.
What are you hoping to see in 9-1-1 Season 9? Let us know in the comments section below.
9-1-1, Season 9, Fall 2025, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC