Who is the new Harry Grant in 9-1-1 Season 7? Marcanthonee Jon Reis' exit, explored

Fox's 9-1-1 is known for its great storytelling around the show's secondary characters. Based on LA's finest first responders and the challenges they face on the job, the show also allows the secondary characters to shine.

One such secondary character is Harry Grant, Athena and Michael's son, who was played by actor Marcanthonee Jon Reis since Season 1. But fans were surprised to see Harry being recast when Elijah M. Cooper was introduced as the new Harry in Season 7.

After Reis' Harry went to Florida with his father and exited the show in Season 5, he was no longer interested in returning in Season 7. Therefore, Cooper was reeled in to play the part. While he has not yet appeared in 9-1-1 Season 8 Part 1, he might return in Season 8 Part 2, but nothing is confirmed.

More on Reis' exit from 9-1-1 Season 5 in our story.

Elijah replaced Reis as Harry Grant in 9-1-1 Season 7

Marcanthonee Jon Reis was introduced as Harry Grant in the 9-1-1 Season 1 Pilot episode. He is LAFD's Sergeant Athena and Michael's son and was a young boy when he debuted on the show. While he was a recurring character, he did not have a major storyline on the show, apart from Athena's son, until Season 5.

After his season 5 story arc, he moved to Florida with his father, Michael, and partner, David. While fans expected to see a separate storyline featuring the trio living in Florida, they were absent from season 6.

In an interview with TVLine, showrunner Tim Minear discussed that she approached Reis for season 7, but he seemed to have outgrown his character after a prolonged absence,

"I reached out to Marcanthonee, who hadn’t been around for a minute, and I pitched him this story. I think he loved the story, but was just ready to do something new."

While Reis has been away from the show for a whole season, he was not interested in returning to 9-1-1 and wanted to explore new opportunities.

Therefore, showrunners bought in Elijah M. Cooper, who replaced Reis in Season 7, when he returned to see Athena and Bobby in their house.

How was Elijah's Harry introduced in 9-1-1 Season 7?

After being away from home throughout season 6, Harry returned in 9-1-1 Season 7, in the show's 100th episode. But it was not all good news for Athena to see her son cooking dinner in her kitchen, as he was not here just to visit her.

This sweet surprise turned sour when Bobby and Athena realized that Harry was there because he was in a fight with a local convenience store owner, where he threw a punch at him. She came to LA after fleeing from the local police.

While this was unacceptable to Athena, she made her son realize that he was wrong and needed to be accountable for his actions. He was asked to do 100 hours of community service.

In an interview with TVLine, Minear discussed how they added a cheeky response to the actor's re-casting,

“If you’re going to bring in a new actor in a beloved role, you want to acknowledge the fact that something has changed. So it felt like an organic way to introduce this new Harry into a story where Athena is saying, ‘I look at my kid, he’s grown so much and I kind of don’t recognize him.'”

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