9-1-1’s Oliver Stark Is Open to Buck and Eddie Romance Amid Coming Out Arc

9-1-1 fans have feverishly shipped Buck and Eddie throughout the show’s tenure, and they’re in good company with the actors themselves.

“I’m open to it. You know, there’s obviously stuff there and there’s a chemistry between us,” Oliver Stark, who plays Evan “Buck” Buckley on the ABC drama, said during the Friday, April 19, episode of the Zach Sang Show. “Yeah, if it goes there then I think it would be [something I would do].”

Stark’s Buck has been a firefighting staple since season 1 of 9-1-1. Eddie Diaz (played by Ryan Guzman) joined the Station 118 crew the following season, quickly striking up a friendship with Buck. While their bond has always been platonic thus far, many fans sense a deeper chemistry.

Buck recently came out during season 7 after having his first same-sex kiss with LAFD helicopter pilot Tommy (Lou Ferrigno Jr.). While Buck and Tommy’s romance is currently playing out on 9-1-1, Stark, 32, was asked on Friday about his hopes for a potential future Buck-Eddie relationship.

“It works two ways, right? I definitely see that as a potential story,” Stark said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with Eddie’s character. But then I also think you have to tread carefully because I don’t want to tell this story where [a] guy comes out and now all his male friends are like ‘Aw, so what you got a crush on me?’ Like, I want to be careful of telling that story.”

Despite treading carefully, Stark is still leaving the door open for Buck and Eddie to get together.

“I get asked, ‘Will it happen?’ [all the time], not, ‘Do I want it to happen?’” he said. “But when people ask me, ‘Is it going to happen?’ I’m always like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t write the show.’ But as far as ‘Do I want it to?’ I also don’t know. Certainly, I’m open to it if that’s what [showrunner] Tim [Minear] decides [is] the most honest way to continue telling the story.”

Guzman, for his part, recently told Us Weekly that Buck’s coming out journey has made his bond with Eddie “stronger than ever.”

“I think the ultimate goal was to show that the connection between Buck and Eddie will remain,” Guzman, 37, told Us earlier this month. “Because now we’ve unveiled this new vulnerable side of Buck, and last season we got to unveil this new side, vulnerable side of Eddie. So the connection is just that much more muy sympatico.”

9-1-1 airs on ABC Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET.