‘9-1-1’ Showrunner Teases [Spoiler] Will Return After Character’s Death

It might not be the last time that 9-1-1 fans see the beloved fire captain of the 118 after all.

Warning: This post includes spoilers for 9-1-1 season 8, episode 15.

In an interview with Variety published after the Thursday, April 17, episode aired on ABC, showrunner Tim Minear teased that Peter Krause will appear in upcoming episodes.

“I will say that episode 15 is not Peter Krause’s final appearance this season,” Minear, 61, quipped.

‘9-1-1’ Main Character Killed Off in Devastating 2-Part Event After 8 Years

Krause, 59, has played fire captain Bobby Nash on all eight seasons of 9-1-1. In Thursday’s episode — a two-part thriller about a contagion — Bobby died at the tail-end of the episode. Throughout the bulk of the episode, Bobby and his firefighter crew of Chimney (Kenneth Choi), Hen (Aisha Hinds) and Ravi (Anirudh Pisharody) were trapped in a subterranean biomedical facility after Chimney was exposed to a deadly pathogen. Outside the lab, Buck (Oliver Stark), Athena (Angela Bassett) and Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) sought a way to secure a sole dose of an antiviral to save Chimney’s life.

With the antiviral eventually secured, Bobby pleaded with the FBI and SWAT agents stationed outside to help his team safely leave the sealed-off facility. He, however, didn’t follow suit and revealed that his gear had a leak, exposing him to the virus.

‘9-1-1’ Showrunner Explains Major Character Death, Angela Bassett Reacts

According to Minear, the decision to kill off Bobby was “entirely creative” and had nothing to do with Krause himself.

“[It was] a very difficult creative decision because there’s practically no one I love on this Earth more than Peter,” Minear told the outlet. “I think it needed to be Bobby for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that it made sense. It didn’t feel arbitrary, because if you track the tragic arc of his character, of where he started and how he came to L.A. looking for atonement, it just makes a kind of tragic sense for his character in a way it wouldn’t for another character.”

Minear further stressed that Bobby’s death would affect “every single character’s story in a way that really no other character death would.”

Bobby’s wife, Athena, was particularly emotional on Thursday’s episode as she said goodbye from the other side of the facility’s door.

“Angela was shocked. She was like, ‘You’re gonna kill my husband?!’” Minear recalled to Variety of Bassett’s initial reaction to the script. “And I’m like, ‘And it’s gonna create a lot of story for you.’”

9-1-1 returns to ABC in two weeks with a promo trailer teasing Bobby’s funeral.