Things are definitely not working out in the favor of Jussie Smollett.
Following yesterday’s events, it looks like his character Jamal Lyon will be cut from the final two episodes of the latest season of “Empire.”
In a statement released on Friday, the executive producers of “Empire” announced that his role will be removed from the final episodes of the season.
The statement reads, “The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our EMPIRE family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.”
As we previously reported, earlier this week Fox announced that his character was not being written out of the show after rumors started to circulate.
Shortly after they released that statement, Jussie was named a suspect and indicted by a grand jury for reportedly filing a false police report. The morning after he was arrested by Chicago police and then released on $100,000 bond.
Please find a new statement from “Empire” Executive Producers Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney, Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer:
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us…”
— 20th Television (@20thTelevision) February 22, 2019
“… Jussie has been an important member of our EMPIRE family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out…”
— 20th Television (@20thTelevision) February 22, 2019
“… We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of ‘Jamal’ from the final two episodes of the season.” -Lee Daniels, Danny Strong, Brett Mahoney…
— 20th Television (@20thTelevision) February 22, 2019
… Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer, executive producers of EMPIRE.
— 20th Television (@20thTelevision) February 22, 2019
We’ll continue to keep you updated.
