‘9-1-1: Lone Star’ Adds Gina Torres as Series Regular in Season 2

Meredith Jacobs September 3, 2020, 2:00 pm

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Gina Torres as Jessica Pearson - Suits - Season 5 — Nigel Parry/USA Network

Jessica Pearson is heading to Texas.

Gina Torres (Suits, Pearson) has joined the cast of 9-1-1: Lone Star as a series regular as Paramedic Captain Tommy Vega. Production is slated to begin in Los Angeles later this fall, while Season 2 is set to premiere in early 2021 as part of Fox’s midseason schedule.

Tommy “was at the top of her game when she hung up her uniform to raise her twin daughters. For eight years life was great, until Covid-19 changed her life,” her character’s description reveals. “With her husband’s restaurant going under, Tommy has no choice but to re-enter the workforce to support her family. Though it breaks her heart to be apart from her little girls, Tommy will show the world that no matter how much time has passed, when she puts on that uniform, she’s still a boss.”

“We are so excited to be expanding our 9-1-1-verse with the addition of Gina Torres,” executive producer Tim Minear said in a statement. “I’ve been dying to write for her again ever since Firefly. Gina brings warmth, intelligence and command to everything she does. 2020 is finally looking up.”

(Gisela Torres)

The description for Tommy also teases what to expect from the first responder drama when it comes to incorporating the real-world pandemic. “What I don’t want to do is ignore it, but I also don’t want the show to become about that,” Minear told TV Insider after the 9-1-1 Season 3 finale. “Probably what you’ll find is when we come back, our characters will have been through what our audience has been through. They will have been through this period of quarantine. They will have learned what the protocols are to get by in day-to-day life.

“The protocols for first responders are very specific. They’re going to have to treat the calls they go out on with that in mind. I’m not saying we won’t do COVID stories. We might,” he continued. “On the other hand, what is interesting to me is an aspirational approach to it in terms of showing that while that is a real thing that exists in the world and even in our world, that life can still go on.”

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Last season, creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Minear expanded the 9-1-1 world with the spinoff, Lone Star, following the professional and personal lives of police officers, firefighters, and dispatchers in Austin, Texas.

The cast of 9-1-1: Lone Star includes Rob Lowe as Captain Owen Strand, Liv Tyler as Captain Michelle Blake, Jim Parrack as Judd Ryder, Ronen Rubinstein as T.K. Strand, Sierra McClain as Grace Ryder, Natacha Karam as Marjan Marwani, Brian Michael Smith as Paul Strickland, Julian Works as Mateo Chavez, and Rafael Silva as Carlos Reyes.

In addition to playing Jessica Pearson first on Suits then on the one-season spinoff Pearson and Zoe Washburn on Firefly and in Serenity, Torres’ previous TV credits include Angel, The Catch, Hannibal, and 24.

9-1-1: Lone Star, Season 2, 2021, Fox