9-1-1 season 8: Will Buck and Eddie get together? What the cast and crew have said about Buddie

Just two seasons ago, the notion of 9-1-1’s Buck (Oliver Stark) and Eddie (Ryan Guzman) becoming an item felt like a distant dream.

The firefighters and best friends have always had incredible chemistry and fans have been shipping them since season 2, but anything romantic beyond the most subtextual of subtexts stayed strictly within fan spaces.

However, since 9-1-1‘s move from Fox to ABC, Buck has had a bi awakening, a boyfriend and a break-up, and is about to move into Eddie’s house as his new subletter (what the actual hell?) after a tense and emotional goodbye on the sidewalk. It finally feels like anything is possible. 

Actor Ryan Guzman sent Buddie fans into a frenzy recently when he revealed what he believes to be the origin of the ship while appearing on podcast Zach Sang Show. The moment cited was when Buck and Eddie kept bumping shoulders with each other in the season 2 episode ‘Stuck’. ‘Somebody picked up on that and that’s where it just kept on growing and growing and growing and growing,’ he said.

When asked by the host if the action was intentional, he confirmed that it wasn’t. ‘It’s just because Oliver doesn’t know how to walk straight, that’s it!’ he laughed. “And mind you, for seasons he’s done that… we were doing a scene and we were walking the same way and he’s doing it again, and I had to actively work against his little push that he does… But the audience sees that, runs with it, we encourage it.’ 

In anticipation of what we deeply hope is the official start of a love arc for Buck and Eddie, here’s a round up of things the cast and crew of 9-1-1 have said about Buddie over the years. (The following evidence was gathered in absolute earnestness and with a penchant for romance.) 

The origin of ‘Buddie’

Fans have been shipping Buck and Eddie since pretty much Eddie’s first day at the 118, way back in 2018. A fun fact that perhaps more casual fans of the show might not realise is that it was actually Ryan Guzman himself that christened the ship ‘Buddie’. 

Following a post in which the official 9-1-1 Instagram account asked whether viewers were Team Buck or Team Eddie, Guzman chimed in to make his allegiance clear. 

He wrote: ‘Pause @oliverstarkk 🤨…. If we’re callin this anything its #TeamBUDDIE all day every day! However, my vote and clearly most everyone on this post goes to Buck though. #TeamBuck [sic].’ 

Stark quickly added his two cents, replying: ‘okay yeah I’m on board with BUDDIE over BEDDIE 🙈.’ 

Buck’s bi awakening 

Following Buck’s bi awakening storyline, which was warmly welcomed by long-time Buddie shippers and casual fans alike, the idea of Buck and Eddie canonically becoming a couple of the show suddenly felt like something that could actually happen. 

Speaking to GAY TIMES in April 2024, Oliver Stark explained that the idea of bisexual Buck had been floated to him several seasons beforehand but it was ‘shut down from somewhere else above.’ 

Despite the fact that Buck saw the rest of season 7 out with a male love interest that wasn’t Eddie, Stark gave fans more hope for Buddie by explaining that he knew where the shippers were coming from. 

He said: ‘I see what everybody else sees. I watch the same show. I don’t think that the Buddie fans are wrong. So I decided this year that I wanted to possibly lean into some kind of sexual awakening for Buck anyway. So when the storyline was brought to me by Tim Minear who writes the show, it was like, ‘Great! I was going to do that anyway, so it’s good to know we’re on the same page!’’

In a later interview with PinkNews in November 2024, Stark explained a little more about what he meant in terms of leaning into the sexual awakening. ‘I don’t quite know how I was gonna go about that, if it was gonna be, like, longing gazes at people that we encounter on calls or what. I didn’t quite have a plan in place as such. And thankfully, I didn’t have to…’ 

Despite Stark insisting he didn’t need to go rogue with Buck’s bisexuality, many fans still believe some of those ‘longing gazes’ were aimed at Eddie during the first few episodes of season 7. 

The showrunner’s cryptic messaging 

Even executive producer Tim Minear has been involved in the discourse around whether or not Buck and Eddie’s friendship is strictly platonic. Speaking to TVLine last week, Minear spoke candidly about the pair’s reaction to Eddie subletting his house to move to El Paso in 8.09, ‘Sob Stories’, a storyline that has sent shockwaves across the fandom. 

He said: ‘It is a breakup in a sense. Eddie is the yin to [Buck’s] yang. They’re tightly intertwined characters. However you want to view that – you know, your mileage may vary – he’s losing someone who’s very important to him, and that’s going to be rough on him.’

Minear then went on to explain that he doesn’t purposely write Buck and Eddie like an old married couple, it just happens. ‘That’s just the way I’ve written them from the beginning,’ he says. ‘I just kind of stopped trying to fight it. Buck was petulant and jealous the very first time he saw Eddie, and then by the end of the first episode that he’s in with him, they’re like best friends. That’s why I say ‘your mileage may vary.’ The story that you’re seeing on the screen is the story, but those characters have evolved.’

Minear has always been a fan of Buck and Eddie’s dynamic. When he left the show for seasons 5 and 6 to work on spin-off 9-1-1: Lone Star, fans were starved of Buddie content for a while. But following his triumphant return in season 7 – and the move to ABC – it took just four episodes for Buck to finally kiss a man. We know Minear can work wonders, crafting a thoughtful and engaging storyline in a short amount of time, so we have all our fingers crossed he’ll do the same in season 8b. 

Love and basketball

Some of the most damning evidence that Buddie might actually go canon in season 8 came when Oliver Stark spoke to Today ahead of his appearance in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game on Valentine’s Day. The game offered the perfect opportunity to circle back to the basketball scene in season 7 episode ‘Buck, Bothered and Bewildered.’ 

The episode itself – which was the show’s 100th – followed Buck getting more and more jealous as Eddie’s new friend Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr) began monopolising Eddie’s time. The story climaxed with Buck lashing out and (probably) accidentally spraining Eddie’s ankle at what was supposed to be a friendly basketball game. Then when Tommy showed up at Buck’s apartment to talk it out, the pair ended up kissing. 

Following Buck and Tommy’s breakup in season 8, Today asked Stark if Buck’s feelings of jealousy were going to be unpacked further in the coming episodes. 

The star replied: ‘Definitely, and I think they’re going to be kind of explored and looked at in a way that is more obvious than kind of has ever been done before on the show. To an extent where I was actually surprised by the extent to which it’s going to be explored. So, yeah, no, absolutely, that is to come very soon.’

As if that wasn’t enough to send fans into yet another frenzy, Today clarified if Stark was referring to jealousy. ‘Not that specifically,’ he said, ‘But just kind of an exploration of what the feelings are… I’ll say no more on that.’

‘I do understand how important it is’

The show’s cast and crew have always been careful about how they discuss Buddie. Their approach to those conversations is something that has largely been appreciated by fans – a handful of shows with big online followings have been accused of queerbaiting after playing into queer ships in interviews and even including sly nods to them on-screen but then not following through with proper representation. 

Speaking to PinkNews last year, Oliver Stark explained why he treads carefully around conversations about Buddie. ‘I do understand how important it is for some people, and at the end of the day, I don’t know where the story is gonna go,’ he said. ‘I can only really speak on Buck so I tread carefully, because on one hand, I don’t want to tell people like, ‘oh yeah, hang around, this thing is happening.’ And then on the other hand, it’s like, I don’t know, maybe… I can only really speak to Buck. 

‘And the other thing that I approach cautiously is not tying his sexuality to anybody else. You know, I was never tied to Tommy. It’s not tied to Eddie. Obviously, it’s his own journey to go down. And Ryan’s character, Eddie, is on his own journey. And if that’s where the story ends up going, then I know a lot of people on Twitter will be very happy… As I’ve kind of always said, I’m here for wherever the story goes. And I just hope the audience feels satisfied with wherever the ending is.’

Season eight of 9-1-1 airs on Thursdays on ABC in the US, and from 21 March on Disney+ in the UK.