9-1-1’s Peter Krause Explains How Bobby Could Still Be Alive

Published Sep 23, 2026, 7:22 AM EDT

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Even as he is headlining a new show, former 9-1-1 star Peter Krause explains how Bobby could still be alive.

More than a year after the shocking death of Captain Bobby Nash in 9-1-1 season 8, Krause has returned to network TV to headline the NBC family drama Line of Fire. It continues a prolific run for the actor, whose previous credits include marquee roles in seminal series like Sports Night from Aaron Sorkin and HBO's Six Feet Under.

Even with all his performances, the project Krause likely gets asked about the most these days is his time on 9-1-1. That's especially true since Krause has given only one brief sit-down, talking to ABC's Good Morning America in the immediate aftermath of Bobby's death. Now, however, timed with his new series, he's reflecting on his controversial departure and embracing the idea that Bobby could still be alive.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Krause speaks at length about what 9-1-1 means to him and how he views Bobby after some distance. Much of it is positive, noting the impact of Bobby's character arc and mentioning that he still keeps in touch with his former castmates. Late in the interview, though, the three-time Emmy nominee offers up a theory of why Captain Bobby Nash could still be alive. Read Krause's full remarks below:

[I’m proud] that he forgave himself ultimately and allowed himself to love again and be loved, on the more therapeutic side of things. And on the other side of things, [I’m proud] that he remained a hero. He was a flawed person, as we all are, and he loved the people around him. Again, I truly loved not only that cast, but I loved being in the character of Bobby Nash. He had a tremendous amount of love from all of those other characters — [his wife] Athena, [his stepchildren] Harry and May; [his firefighters] Chimney, Buck, Hen, Eddie, everybody. But I also have deep relationships with those people too. I saw Guzie [Ryan Guzman] and Kenny in L.A. just a couple weeks ago.

And to loop back to [the fan theories about] him being in a lab somewhere, it would be within the language of the show for Bobby Nash to come to [his senses] with amnesia and for Athena to have to get in there and make him remember who he is again. Look, on a show where anything could happen, I think that that’s part of the fun of that show, and why the audiences were upset is because it’s like, “Come on! Anything can happen on this show. This isn’t bound by the same rules as other television shows. This is unbridled.” But I hope that they remember Bobby Nash fondly. I certainly loved him, and obviously audiences did too.

As a refresher, Captain Bobby Nash was killed off in 9-1-1 season 8, episode 15, "Lab Rats." He contracts a deadly virus and sacrifices himself to save his team. Krause appears in the rest of the season via flashbacks or as a ghost version of Bobby, talking to his widow, Athena (Angela Bassett). But he does not appear at all in season 9.

At the time of Bobby's death, series co-creator and executive producer Tim Minear argued that Bobby's death was done out of a need to inject realism into the show's high-stakes missions. The reasoning received blowback from the audience, who felt that it was an out-of-place pivot since the ABC drama is very intentionally unrealistic. More recently, in comments to The Washington Post, Minear admitted that Bobby's death was influenced by budget constraints.

That may have well been the motivating factor. The long-running hit has a reputation for plotlines that defy logic and moments that wouldn't work on any other procedural. It's executive produced by Ryan Murphy, and the initial appeal of the premise was that Murphy would bring his heightened style to an otherwise standard network drama via wild 9-1-1 emergencies. Since then, the appeal has partly grown to the fact that viewers have embraced the characters themselves.

That's why, for many, Krause's thoughts perhaps serve as a glimmer of hope for how Bobby could return in time for the eventful series finale. The prevailing theory is that somehow being kept hidden by the government and is being studied for the effects of the virus. Whatever the case, it's clear that, even two seasons later, audiences would welcome the wildly implausible twist. That's the core of what 9-1-1 is.

9-1-1 season 10 premieres Thursday, October 15 at 8 PM ET on ABC and streams on Hulu.

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  Angela Bassett

  Athena Grant

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  Peter Krause

  Robert 'Bobby' Nash