Primetime is packed with action thanks to the returns of both 9-1-1: Lone Star to Fox and 9-1-1 to ABC in the fall 2024 TV schedule. The end to Lone Star's action isn't too far off, however, as the show will end after a 12-episode fifth and final season. Now, another 9-1-1 spinoff is in the works to join the original show on ABC, which just reminded me of what Lone Star executive producer Rashad Raisani shared with CinemaBlend about the end of Season 5.
9-1-1's New Spinoff
The upcoming end of Fox's 9-1-1 property doesn't mean that ABC's half of the franchise can't expand. Another show set in the 9-1-1 universe is in development for ABC, with two of the original series' co-creators involved. Ryan Murphy dropped the news to Variety, saying:
Tim Minear and I are working on a new spinoff that we’re actually writing, and that we hope to get on the air next fall... So now we’re going to launch a new show in a new city that I can’t name, but it’s fun. And ‘9-1-1’ moved to ABC and suddenly became, I think, the biggest show on Thursday night. They obviously have an appetite for that, so we’re going to give them another one that I really love.
Only time will tell what "new city" is the setting Ryan Murphy was alluding to, but I'm interested to see if it will be closer to 9-1-1's Los Angeles than Lone Star's Austin to allow for easier crossovers than when the original two shows were both on Fox. (Both are currently streaming with a Hulu subscription.)
The new project hasn't been ordered to series at the time of writing, so it remains to be seen if it will actually make it to primetime. I just can't help but find this news bittersweet, given that 9-1-1: Lone Star got the axe.
9-1-1: Lone Star Executive Producer On Season 5
Lone Star co-showrunner/executive producer Rashad Raisani spoke with CinemaBlend ahead of the fifth and final season, admitting that the "writing was on the wall" for cancellation before it became official. The team didn't get the word until filming had already wrapped on Season 5 without a returning series regular, meaning that what is now the series finale hadn't been definitively planned as the end of the story for Owen and Co.
I asked Raisani how proud he was of Season 5 serving as the end of the Lone Star cast of characters despite not designing it that way, and he shared:
I'm immensely proud. The actors, this season, I feel like every single one of them just brought everything they had, and I think delivered. Maybe because they'd all been working together for longer, they had all been deeper in their characters, we were able to think even more deeply about them because we had such a long time between seasons, but they just got to a place that I think is just so beautiful to watch.
Season 5 certainly got off to a thrilling start, and the first two episodes set up a massive train crisis while Owen is still struggling with choosing a replacement for Judd. Based on Rashad Raisani's comments, those two episodes are only the beginning of a "beautiful" final season. He went on:
Each one of them has what I hope people will see is a very poetic and fitting ending for their character. For good, for bad, for whatever you want to say, they all ended on honest journeys. And I think all of their journeys continue as the show ends. Just in case we ever got an 11th hour lifeline, their journeys could continue, but if they don't, I think we end them in a place where I'm really proud of where we leave all of these people as we leave them.
An 11th hour save seems unlikely at this point, but it sounds promising that the series isn't going to end by concluding all of the characters' journeys. Who knows? Maybe some of them could relocate to the mystery location of Ryan Murphy and Tim Minear's potential ABC spinoff and join that cast. For now, I'm just glad to hear that the executive producer is so proud of what is turning out to be Lone Star's finished product.
You can catch new episodes of 9-1-1: Lone Star Season 5 on Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox ahead of freshman series Rescue: HI-Surf, and new episodes of 9-1-1's bee-tastic Season 8 on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET ahead of Doctor Odyssey at 9 p.m. ET and Grey's Anatomy at 10 p.m. ET. You can also revisit previous seasons of both shows streaming via Hulu.
