9-1-1: Nashville Trailer Opens With Paternity Shocker For Chris O'Donnell — First Look At ABC's 9-1-1 Spinoff

Firefighters often think of one another as family, but 9-1-1: Nashville is taking that concept to a whole new level with a paternity twist that's going to rock Music City.

ABC has released the official trailer for the 9-1-1 spinoff, revealing that influencer Hunter McVey is playing the secret son of Chris O'Donnell's Captain Don Hart — much to the surprise of his other son, who fights fires alongside his father as a member of the 113.

Watch the new trailer below:

"There were a lot of possibilities that had been talked about," 9-1-1: Nashville executive producer Tim Minear tells TVLine, explaining that the setting was ultimately chosen for two reasons. "One, I think that it's a really interesting city with its own personality. It's very unlike Austin. We did kind of a red state 9-1-1 [with Lone Star], but Austin is a very blue town. Nashville felt even a little bit more Southern. It also has the country music industry, and it just felt like it could be a fun place to set a piece of the franchise."

The second reason is a bit more practical. "Quite frankly, Tennessee is very production-friendly," Minear adds. "That also factored into our reasoning. There are some states that you think would be fantastic places to set the show, but it's just not cost effective to do it."

9-1-1: Nashville is also being executive-produced by Ryan Murphy, former 9-1-1: Lone Star showrunner Rashad Raisani, Brad Falchuk, Chad Lowe and Angela Bassett.

Read on for a breakdown of everything (and everyone) we know about 9-1-1: Nashville, including our first looks at the show's cast, then drop a comment with your own thoughts and hopes for the franchise's next chapter.

Chris O'Donnell (NCIS: Los Angeles) stars as Captain Don Hart, "a rugged fire captain and rodeo rider who runs Nashville's busiest firehouse with his beloved son," according to the official character breakdown. "Don's a devoted husband and family man but he has his secrets." That secret, as revealed in the trailer, is that he and LeAnn Rimes' character share a son.

Former Grey's Anatomy star Jessica Capshaw was the second addition to the cast, stepping into the role of Don's (O'Donnell) wife Blythe. She's in the horse racing business, which is a natural fit for Capshaw, who "grew up riding" and is still "around horses all the time."

"She's everything you want to be, and you want to talk to your daughters about being," Capshaw tells TVLine. "She's this equal mix of strong and smart and strategic and ambitious. At the same time, she's incredibly warm and holding everyone together and making sure that everyone's feeling good. She's the empath and the conductor at the same time. It's going to be very fun to see how that plays out."

The country singer is making her series-regular TV debut in the role of Dixie Bennings. She and Don share a son, whom she encourages to reconnect with his father... for a variety of reasons.

The former Nashville star is returning to Music City, this time playing a dispatcher named Cammie, who also happens to be Blythe's sister-in-law.

Provost stars plays Don and Blythe's son Ryan, a firefighter and modern-day cowboy.

Kilgore plays Taylor, a firefighter and incredible singer.

Feliz plays Roxie, a former trauma surgeon and total adrenaline junkie.

McVey plays Blue, a haunted bad boy-turned-firefighter who accidentally falls into a firefighting career when his gig as a stripper takes a dramatic turn. The journey also reunites him with Don, the biological father he never knew, and Ryan, the half-brother he never knew existed.

A familiar face is relocating from Virgin River to Music City. Tim Matheson, who currently portrays Doc on Netflix's romantic drama, will recur in the first season of ABC's 9-1-1: Nashville.

A far cry from the friendly medical professional he plays on Virgin River, Matheson's character is an old-money southerner named Edward who has a reputation for being "utterly ruthless."

Gregory Alan Williams (The Righteous Gemstones) will also recur as a fire station chief named Harold Foster, while MacKenzie Porter (Hell on Wheels) will recur as a Nashville ER doctor named Samantha Hart.

The series premiere of 9-1-1: Nashville will air Thursday, Oct. 9 at 9/8c on ABC, sandwiched between the Season 9 premiere of 9-1-1 (8 pm) and the Season 22 premiere of Grey's Anatomy (10 pm).

(The premiere was originally set for Oct. 16, but ABC bumped it up a week.)

9-1-1: Lone Star only staged one full crossover with 9-1-1 during its five-season run, along with a FaceTime cameo from Angela Bassett's Athena. Logistics were blamed for the lack of interaction between the two shows, and it doesn't sound like we can hope for much better with 9-1-1: Nashville.

"It's just not something we're thinking about right now," Minear says.

Oliver Stark got the fandom speculating in early August 2025 when he posted an Instagram story from — you guessed it — Nashville — but he insisted in a follow-up interview with TVLine that no crossover material has been filmed.

With 9-1-1: Lone Star having reached what many fans consider to be an early conclusion, it could be fun for a few characters to continue their stories on the spinoff. Fun... but not likely.

"I have no current plans for that," Minear tells TVLine. "But it's not impossible!"

For what it's worth, Rob Lowe recently expressed his desire to make an appearance as Owen Strand, his character from Lone Star. "I'll have to ask Chad Lowe, my brother," Lowe said. "Chad Lowe is the executive producer, director of 9-1-1 Nashville. So I'm just waiting for my phone to ring. I mean, you know, I hired him on Lone Star. I think turnabout is fair play."