For seven seasons, a large section of 9-1-1 fans have seen romantic potential between Evan 'Buck' Buckley (Oliver Stark) and Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzman).
With a – short – enemies to friends arc in Eddie's first episode in season two, the pair soon became fast friends with Eddie telling Buck at one point that he had named Buck as Eddie's son Christopher's legal guardian should something happen to Eddie.
© DisneyBoth characters were canonically heterosexual until season seven when Buck came out as bisexual, and that decision increased the fervor among the 'Buddie' (a portmanteau of Buck and Eddie) fans.
However Ryan has now praised where the pair's friendship is as season eight comes to an end, telling Deadline that "right now it stands as it is" and that the characters "have something so genuine with what we’ve already established".
© Chris Willard"I think Oliver’s character has said it multiple times. It’s like, why can’t we just be friends, brothers. I think right now it stands as it is," he said.
Ryan went on to praise the fandom for creating "their own lore," adding that he has seen "so many different things" for the characters from the fans.
"I see renditions of the show where it’s all of us like friends, characters, and stuff. I love it. They’re so adamant on their version of 9-1-1," he said.
© Chris WillardSpeaking at the ABC Upfronts on May 13, Oliver insisted that he would never want the pair's relationship to turn romantic for the sake of fan service.
"What I will say is that if the story ever goes in that direction, I don’t think the way to do it is purely to give in to dance," he said. "I hope, if it goes there, it’s done because that’s the right story to tell and that’s the right progression for the characters.”
© DisneyThe potential for romance has never been explicitly referenced in the series until midway through season eight.
Buck enjoyed a one night stand with his ex-boyfriend Tommy Kinard but in the morning Tommy calls out Eddie's place in Buck's life and potential romantic feelings Buck may have for his best friend– marking the first time in the show's history that the pair's connection has been explicitly stated out loud by a character.
9-1-1 fans had long been calling on the showrunners to make the queer-coded character Evan 'Buck' Buckley explicitly queer using canonical moments from across the seven seasons in their arguments.
Queer-coding is when a character's sexual orientation is implied by significant subtext without being stated outright.
It finally happened in season seven episode four, 'Buck, Bothered and Bewildered', which saw the character grow jealous over Eddie'S new friendship with Tommy, only for Buck to understand by the end that it was never Eddie's friendship he was worried about but rather Tommy's attention.
