It's a great time to be a 911 fan because not only was the season 9 premiere date moved up, but the cast and crew have officially gotten back to work on set! ABC shifted the premiere dates of its Thursday night dramas up one week, which means we will be catching up with the 118 — and meeting the new first responders in Nashville — sooner than anticipated.
But before we reunite with the 118, the cast and crew had to do so first. On July 30, the official 911 Instagram account shared a video of the cast on set for the first day of production on season 9. Cameras have started rolling on the highly anticipated new season, which will be the first without Peter Krause as a series regular and Bobby Nash as a key member of the team.
While the comments were flooded with messages from fans who were pleading with ABC to bring Bobby back, the behind-the-scenes video sneakily revealed the returns of three characters and cast members we weren't sure would be back for season 9. No, it's not Krause as Bobby (sadly), but we couldn't be more excited to see these three supporting characters back for more!
The video heavily features a lot of our favorite 911 stars, like Oliver Stark, Aisha Hinds, Angela Bassett, Kenneth Choi, and Ryan Guzman, though the video also confirms that Anirudh Pisharody will be back as Ravi Panikkar, Corinne Massiah returns as Athena's daughter May Grant, and Elijah M. Cooper is back as Athena's son Harry Grant. That's so exciting!
ABC hasn't revealed in what capacity the stars and characters will be featured in season 9. Pisharody has been a recurring star since he made his debut as Ravi in season 4, but fans have been clamoring for Ravi to become a series regular character. Maybe this will finally be the year that Pisharody will be promoted into the main cast after only recurring for over half of the show's run.
Likewise, May and Harry have been series regular characters in the past, though they were each reduced to recurring or guest in recent seasons. Again, it's not confirmed whether Massiah and Cooper will have an increased presence in season 9 as they help their mother through a challenging period through Bobby's death, though it's likely they will still be recurring.
Some eagle-eyed 911 fans will probably notice that Jennifer Love Hewitt isn't featured in the behind-the-scenes production video, though that seemingly only means that Maddie's scenes weren't being filmed on the first day of production. Hewitt has already been confirmed to be returning for season 9, so there's no need to panic just because the star wasn't included in the video. She did "like" the video, and as usual, she will definitely let us know on social media when she's back in Maddie's headset.
911 season 9 premieres on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 8/7c on ABC.