Empire: Fox cancels drama after six seasons in wake of Jussie Smollett controversy
It remains unclear whether Smollett will return
Empire will end after its next season, Fox has announced, almost two months after charges against its actor Jussie Smollett were dropped.
The hip-hop drama, in which Smollett has played R&B singer and songwriter Jamal Lyon, will get a sixth season before wrapping up for good in the fall.
“We are turning the final season of Empire into a large television event,” Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier told a teleconference on Monday.
“One of the great benefits of announcing a final season is that you actually allow the fans to lean in and have the ending they deserve.”
Collier dodged questions about Smollett’s future in the show. Earlier this year, the actor was accused of allegedly staging an attack in which he said two masked men beat him, hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, doused him with a chemical substance and put a rope around his neck.
Criminal charges in the case were dropped in March.
When pressed, Collier said there is an option to include him in the series “but at this point we have no plans for that”.
Fox, the lowest-rated network among the big four broadcasters, is hitting the reset button for the 2019-20 season by cancelling eight shows and adding 10 new ones.
The Empire companion drama Star is among the goners as the network makes room for an eclectic mix of wrestling, two new animated comedies and a 9-1-1 spinoff starring Rob Lowe.
Star fell victim to Fox’s prime-time schedule, which is an hour shorter per night than the other networks, Collier said. The network also wanted to give Empire a strong send-off by pairing it with returning medical drama The Resident, according to Collier.
Additional reporting by agencies