Rob Lowe will always have love for his 9-1-1 family. The West Wing alum joined the Ryan Murphy universe back in 2020 with the launch of 9-1-1 spin-off 9-1-1: Lone Star, which was based in Austin and starred his character Owen Strand, alongside Gina Torres, Liv Tyler, Ronen Rubinstein, and Brian Michael Smith, among others. The show was ultimately canceled in late 2024 — the last episode aired February 2025 — over financial reasons, however, as the 9-1-1 franchise prepares to premiere another spin-off, 9-1-1: Nashville, the St. Elmo's Fire actor is weighing in.
Speaking with Variety, Rob, whose brother Chad Lowe is an executive producer and director on the forthcoming series, said he's "really excited" about it. "I've been getting live updates from my brother Chad, who's the executive producer/director, and it's all my friends on it," he shared. The show stars Chris O'Donnell, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, LeAnn Rimes, Jessica Capshaw, Michael Provost, Kane Brown, and Tim Matheson, among others.
© Getty"I play golf with Chris O’Donnell. Kimberly Williams-Paisley I've worked with twice, who's the most adorable, wonderful woman. And there are a couple other folks on the show that I know, and I keep hearing people go, 'It's crazy! We're hanging from a bridge!' I'm like, 'Yeah, that's what you've signed up for!'" he went on, before confessing: "I'm just glad I don't have to wear the fireman outfit in the Nashville summer; that's the number one thing I've been thinking about."
As for whether he will possibly revive his character by taking him over from Austin to Nashville, he first said: "I love Owen Strand and I love how people miss that character. It means a lot to me that the people really related to him and liked him," however emphasized: "I don't ever rule anything out, but at the moment I don't think there are any plans to do it."
9-1-1: Nashville premieres on ABC on October 9. Showrunner Rashad Raisani, recently teasing some of the action-packed moments already in the works for the new spin-off, told TVLine: "We have an Airstream trailer that ends up on top of a bridge and a poor guy on a Segway tour of the city who ends up impaled on a water tower," adding that the show will bring "a bunch of crazy emergencies where people end up in places where they shouldn’t be." And while the spin-off's "DNA, of course, is 9-1-1," Rashad went on, it is taking inspiration from some prestige TV heavyweights to set itself apart.
© WireImage"There's some Succession…and some Dynasty slipped in there," he further shared, revealing: "The show begins with an explosive revelation that affects the central dynamic of a character's world. And then we shamelessly use tornadoes to great effect as a metaphor for the storm that has come into these characters' lives."
© DisneyAlso giving insight into the characters of Jessica and Chris — who have known each other for over 20 years since appearing together on The Practice — he shared "there's a story of class" as Jessica's character "comes from money, but there was a fire at her ranch, and she fell for this blue-collar firefighter."
© Disney"I'm sure I wasn't her parents' first pick," Chris joked, noting that his character, Don Sharpe, "straddles being a firefighter and then also being in this very high-end, well-known family here in Nashville."
