‘Obvious and Easy Crossover’: 9-1-1 Star Talks About an Epic Crossover with The Rookie

On March 20, the worlds of 9-1-1 and Doctor Odyssey will collide with a crossover episode on the latter ABC drama series. Ahead of the crossover, 9-1-1 star Oliver Stark has shared why he hopes the show’s next crossover will be with the Nathan Fillion-led The Rookie.

Speaking with TV Fanatic, Stark — who has portrayed firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley on 9-1-1 since its 2018 premiere — shared that he really wanted to pop up on another television series, remarking with a laugh that he would go on “as many as they’ll have me in.” The actor then noted how “The Rookie seems like an obvious and easy crossover” given that both shows are set in Los Angeles, “so that seems to make sense to me that there could be some mass casualty event that all the police stations and all the firehouses are at.”

 

Stark also pitched “a more fun route” for a crossover. “I believe they do police versus firefighter football games or whatever. So maybe we rock up on The Rookie and take them down in some sporting event,” he pitched. “Although, if we’re going over to their show, I assume they’d have them win. So maybe not. But yeah, that just seems like a fun and easy, real kind of way to go about it. So, I’m still game for, one day, The Rookie crossover.”

A crossover between 9-1-1 and The Rookie would have originally been deemed impossible to achieve given that the former originally aired on Fox for its first six seasons. However, after Fox canceled the series, ABC picked it up for a seventh (and later eighth) season, opening the door for 9-1-1 to crossover with other dramas on the network, like Doctor Odyssey, which were both created by Ryan Murphy.

The Worlds of 9-1-1 and The Rookie Continue to Expand on ABC

ABC is currently developing new spinoffs for both 9-1-1 and The Rookie, which were announced in February 2025 and December 2024, respectively. The 9-1-1 spinoff will be set in Nashville and has former NCIS: Los Angeles series regular Chris O’Donnell on board in the lead role of Captain Don Sharpe, a rugged fire captain and rodeo rider who runs Nashville’s busiest firehouse with his beloved son. 9-1-1: Nashville will be the second spinoff in the franchise after 9-1-1: Lonestar, which concluded after five seasons on Fox in February 2025.

As for The Rookie, Lionsgate Television and 20th Television are in early development on a new spinoff series that will be set in Washington state and focus on a male cop who is stepping into a new phase of life in his second act. Alexi Hawley is writing the spinoff and will also executive produce alongside Fillion. This would be ABC’s second crack at a Rookie spinoff after The Rookie: Feds, which aired a single season back in 2022-23.