Everything We Know About Fox’s 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star Crossover

As sad, scary, and surreal as emergency and procedural dramas can get, there’s no denying that we all love them. Shows like these that tell the stories of real people who deal with very real-life situations definitely makes you appreciate them more as everyday heroes.

Sure, watching the shows comes with the fearful thoughts of “Could that happen to me? What if that happens to me or someone I love?”, but it also brings comfort in knowing that there are doctors, firefighters, cops, paramedics, and other first responders who would risk their lives to save yours.

9-1-1 and its spin-off 9-1-1: Lone Star are just two of many amazing shows like this. Though the two series’s feature a different set of cast and characters, as well as different settings, fans of both received some pretty exciting news in May 2020: that showrunner Tim Minear had plans of future crossover episodes between the firefighter dramas – and crossovers are always something to look forward to!

Before this announcement, 9-1-1 franchise fans already had a taste – albeit tiny – of a crossover when a previously rescued victim from the origin series popped up again in Lone Star. However, this just left them wanting more!

Now before we talk about the crossover that’s got 9-1-1 fans abuzz with excitement, let’s take a quick look at the origin series just so we know where we’re at before the crossover happens.

Quick Look at 9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star

Both the flagship series and its spin-off were created for Fox by creative masterminds Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Tim Minear. If they sound familiar, it may be because the trio has worked together in some capacity across a variety of very well-known shows: Glee, American Horror Story, Feud, Scream Queens, and Pose being just some of them.

9-1-1 is set in Los Angeles and follows the lives of its heroic first responders: paramedics, firefighters, police officers, and the dispatchers, too.

The show began its fourth season this January with an action-packed premiere that saw the Hollywood Reservoir dam breaking. Amidst all of this, each character also had to go up against their personal demons – some of which are effects physical and emotional traumas that come with their job. Athena was working up to jumping back into her job; Buck confronted his past, and Maddie and Chimney were preparing for the future and their growing family.

9-1-1: Lone Star joins 9-1-1 in premiering their new season this January 2021, albeit the second for this spin-off. In fact, both shows are now airing on the same night – Mondays – one after the other.

Taking from the ‘Lone Star’ reference in its name, the show takes place in the Texas capital, Austin. Though 9-1-1: Lone Star primarily weaves through Captain Owen Strand and the events of his personal life, the fire, ambulance, and police departments of his company 126 also form the core of the show.

At the onset of the first season, Capt. Strand has just relocated to Austin from Manhattan to help rebuild the 126 after all but one members were killed in a devastating fire accident. Having just suffered from an overdose and a heartbreak, Strand’s adult son, TK – who is also a first responder – decides to join his father in Austin in the hopes of starting anew. On top of helping his son on his journey to recovery, Strand must also deal with a medical issue of his own: a lung cancer diagnosis caused by his exposure at ground zero during the 9/11 attacks.

In the second season, we’re meeting a new paramedic captain, as well as Strand’s ex-wife and TK’s mother.

9-1-1 and 9-1-1: Lone Star Crossover Details

Now that we’re all caught up, what do we know about the crossover?

After Tim Minear announced his plans to “cross-pollinate” the two shows in May, fans were waiting expectantly for any more news – like how far into the next season these crossovers would we get to experience it?

Well, more good news came in late November 2020 in the form of a little Twitter teaser from Minear himself.

He posted a picture of 9-1-1’s Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) in the same shot with Lone Star’s TK (Ronen Rubinstein) and Marjan (Natacha Karam). And Minear captioned it with “I wonder what that’s about?”, already providing a major hint with these characters meeting.

Not long after that, Brian Michael Smith from Lone Star (who plays fellow firefighter and trans man, Paul Strickland) gave a little teaser of his own, all but confirming the crossover and his part in it.

Alongside the picture Minear had posted the day before, he attached another of his own character seemingly in the same scene.

Yet another teaser came for fans a couple of days later care of Rubinstein’s official Instagram account, where he posted the script cover with the episode’s title: “Hold the Line” with the #TheCrossover hashtag and both the shows’ official accounts tagged.

Thanks to Rubinstein’s post, we also got details like the episode’s writers (Jessica Ball and John Owen Lowe), and the director (Bradley Buecker).

And earlier this month, we finally received news on the date for the crossover!

According to The Wrap, the crossover will take place with both shows’ third episodes on February 1st!

9-1-1 will be kicking it off and setting things up with its episode titled “The Searchers” before we get the real bulk of the crossover immediately after with the Lone Star episode. Which means that the majority of the main cast for Lone Star will be seen throughout the crossover.

On the 9-1-1 side of things joining Eddie and Buck will be Hen (played by Aisha Hinds). And the trio will travel from Los Angeles to help out the Station 126 team in Austin as they fight to get a huge wildfire under control.

The official synopsis for 9-1-1: Lone Star season 2 episode 3 reads:

“As a wildfire spreads across Texas, crew members from the 118 firehouse in Los Angeles arrive in Austin to help Capt. Strand and the 126; a group of teenagers are trapped by a fire; Owen and Hen struggle in the aftermath of a helicopter crash.”

So, it looks like during the episode we will be seeing a few interesting pairings.

As Tim Minear told TheWrap: “There are sort of a couple of different stories that are happening in that episode. [..] I always knew that I wanted to see what it was like to have T.K. and Buck have a story together. I thought there was something really interesting about seeing Eddie and Marjan and Judd together. And I had a whole Owen story that I wanted to do. [..] And the question was sort of, who is the most interesting character for Owen to share this story with? And it didn’t initially occur to me that it should be Hen, but once I realized it should be Hen — it all just kind of made perfect sense. It’s the pairing that you sort of don’t expect.”

And you can beautifully see these different stories and pairings in the stills from the episode:

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Here’s hoping that the showrunners of the 9-1-1 franchise have more crossover events up their sleeves.

In the meantime, are you excited? Because we know we are!