‘9-1-1’: Oliver Stark Teases Buck’s Love Life Drama in Season 9

Be on the Front Line

For exclusive news and updates, subscribe to our 9-1-1 Newsletter:

Buck (Oliver Stark) is one of the 9-1-1 characters who hasn’t had much luck with love. Will that change in Season 9? If it does, it won’t be so fast.

There will be “some ups and downs” with his love life this season, Stark told TV Insider as part of our First Response aftershow for the premiere. “He’s not going to thus far intentionally try and find himself in any situations, but he’s Buck and he ends up often in new places that he doesn’t expect to find himself in.”

That happened in Season 8 when, after he ran into his ex-boyfriend Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.) at a bar and they went home together, the other man suggested that Buck has feelings for his best friend, Eddie (Ryan Guzman). Buck denied it when he recounted the conversation to his sister, Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt). Thus far, there’s no follow-up about that in Season 9.

“There’s not really been a ton of relationship stuff for Buck in that sense, and I know people are keen to see whether or not that will rear its head again,” Stark shared.

Related

'9-1-1' Stars Tease Season 9 — Will There Finally Be Eddie & Maddie Scenes?

Buck isn’t “consciously pursuing or trying to get into and he’s not going to be in a relationship” in the first half of Season 9, the star continued. Rather, as the season progresses, “he’s finding himself in other situations. … I think he is figuring out how he can best honor the lessons that he was taught by Bobby [Peter Krause] and whether he is in a position to help pass those onto others. And he’s obviously not a captain or anything like that, but can he still show up in a leadership role for those around him?”

Stark recently said on Instagram for Bi Visibility Day that he’s hoping to hammer home the point that bisexual men aren’t just too scared to come out as gay.

“Yeah, I’ve seen not a ton but a fair amount of that where, ‘Oh, they made Buck gay on the show because since his coming out we’ve obviously only seen him with Tommy with a boyfriend,’ and I really am excited for the show to find ways to represent but also educate,” he explained in our aftershow. “I don’t think that’s necessarily, when people say that, from a hateful place but from an ignorant place, they genuinely think, ‘Oh, the show made Buck gay.’ So, I look forward for the opportunity for the show to help educate and help correct some maybe naivety around that. No, it’s not that Buck’s gay, he’s bisexual, and that, yeah, the show will, as I say, find ways to lean into that that are fun and don’t feel like a hard education but can in a subtle way end up moving the needle on that.”

What are you hoping to see from Buck’s love life this season? Let us know in the comments section below.

9-1-1, Thursdays, 8/7c, ABC