Fox dropped a new teaser for the upcoming fourth season of “9-1-1” on Tuesday, featuring the long-awaited introduction of Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) and Buck’s (Oliver Stark) parents, Phillip and Margaret Buckley (played by Gregory Harrison and Dee Wallace).
And based on the short visit we get with them in the promo above, we probably could have put off this intro a bit longer, as they don’t seem to be the most pleasant of people. And that’s obviously not something Maddie, who is very pregnant with Chimney’s (Kenneth Choi) baby when the Fox first-responder drama returns, has the energy to deal with right now.
“9-1-1” Season 4 will premiere Jan. 18 at 8 p.m., just ahead of the Season 2 premiere of its spinoff series “9-1-1: Lone Star.” The Angela Bassett and Peter Krause-led drama had a longer-than-usual hiatus between Seasons 3 and 4 due to the pandemic, which pushed it and most of Fox’s other scripted series to midseason.
When the “9-1-1” Season 3 finale aired in May, showrunner Tim Minear told TheWrap that just because Maddie and Chimney have skipped a few traditional steps (getting engaged/married) before getting pregnant, doesn’t mean you won’t see them go through those experiences in Season 4.
“Oh, we’re not going to skip anything,” Minear said. “That story is going to continue to be told. It may be told in a sideways fashion, it may not be told in the way you completely expect it, but we’re not just going to move off it. That’s the beginning of a story, not the end of a story.”
You can read more about where we left off at the end of Season 3 — and where Minear says the show is going in Season 4 — here.
Along with Bassett, Krause, Hewitt, Stark and Choi, “9-1-1” stars Aisha Hinds, Rockmond Dunbar and Ryan Guzman.
“9-1-1” Season 4 will premiere Jan. 18 at 8/7c on Fox.