Murder hornets. Snakes. Blood-flooded basements.
Music City is about to become a disaster zone inundated with biblical plagues when "9-1-1: Nashville" returns for season two.
Ahead of the high-octane ABC drama's Oct. 15 premiere, the cast spoke with The Tennessean on Aug. 2 about the lingering consequences of last season's family feud and the increasingly outlandish emergencies confronting Station 113.
"There's a whole other level of suspense and intrigue and a little sleuthing," said Jessica Capshaw, who plays Blythe Hart. "We gotta finish up some stuff we started, where we left off at the end of season one. So we've got that. We got some cleanup."
A rogue arrival
The first season
spotlighted familiar Nashville landmarks: a tornado tore through a Kane Brown concert at Ascend Amphitheater, an Airstream dangled from the Korean War Veterans Memorial Bridge, a girl holding a kite was launched into the air at Centennial Park, a deadly waterslide stunt unfolded at Nashville Shores and a fire engulfed Nelson's Green Brier Distillery.
The previous season ended with a brawl between Blythe Hart and Dixie Bennings, played by Jessica Capshaw and LeAnn Rimes, whose tangled history with fire captain Don Hart, played by Chris O'Donnell, has repeatedly threatened his marriage.
The second season picks up three weeks later, with all three facing the fallout. When asked about Dixie's condition, Rimes offered a mischievous tease.
"She's okay. I mean, hello," she said, gesturing to herself at promo day and laughing. "We'll see how Dixie is. We'll see how Blythe is, is actually the real question. I don't think you should be asking how Dixie is. You should see the other girl."
"Dixie does not submit, for sure," Rimes added.
Ryan Phillippe ushers in a darker dimension to the drama as Rogue Kelly. The New York detective investigates a string of mysterious crimes terrorizing Music City.
"He's a new guy in town and comes with a whole new attitude and edge and stirs some stuff up," Phillippe said.
For O'Donnell, the detective introduces an element the series previously lacked.
"Obviously, he's playing the detective, and we needed that in the show. We didn't have that. So it'll be a little more kind of like dark mystery coming to the show."
Phillippe has received a considerably warmer welcome offscreen. Asked whether the cast had subjected him to any initiation rituals, Rimes insisted they'd exercised restraint.
"Not yet. We've been very kind," she said.
"Almost too kind," Phillippe countered. "It's disconcerting."
The cast remained tight-lipped about the season's escalating emergencies, though Michael Provost and Hunter McVey couldn't resist a few revelations.
"We would love to tell you about all the murder hornets and the snakes, but they told us we can't," joked Provost, who plays Ryan Hart.
"My lips are sealed," McVey, who plays Blue Bennings, insisted before describing "slithery snakes and murder hornets with a stinger size you wouldn't believe."
Finding a home in Music City
Unlike its Texas-set predecessor, "9-1-1: Lone Star," which was largely filmed in California, "9-1-1: Nashville" has made Tennessee its production headquarters.
The series transformed a Chestnut Hill warehouse into the firehouse. According to the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, the production was projected to create more than 600 jobs and generate approximately $50 million in local economic activity.
Much of the cast has relocated, if even temporarily, to Music City during production. And they each have their favorite neighborhood haunts.
Kimberly Williams-Paisley, who was already based in the area and plays dispatcher Cammie Raleigh, singled out the National Museum of African American Music as a favorite retreat.
"You can just disappear in there," she said. "You can listen to the history of music and who influenced who, and it just is a deep dive."
Rimes highlighted the boutiques of Leiper's Fork, while O'Donnell gave a shout out to Sperry's as one of his favorite restaurants.
Provost praised The Cookery, a nonprofit restaurant and training program serving people experiencing homelessness. And McVey's said his favorite haunt is the Wild Beaver Saloon, where his character's first scenes were filmed in 2025.
"I had been there a couple times after I graduated college, riding the bull and singing karaoke," he said. "So a little déjà vu mix between my life and Blue's life."
Season two of "9-1-1: Nashville" premieres Oct. 15 on ABC, with episodes available the following day on Hulu.
Bryan West is a music reporter at The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow him on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Peek behind the scenes of '9-1-1: Nashville' Season 2 | Exclusive
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