Fallen Empire

Charged with filing a false police report and accused of faking an attack on himself, actor Jussie Smollett has been written off the Fox drama that made him a star—at least for now.

- Derek Lawrence

“LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT, I’M IN IT WITH Jamal for the long run.” That’s what Jussie Smollett, who has played Jamal Lyon on Empire since its debut in 2015, told EW ahead of the Fox drama’s season 5 premiere last fall. That feels like years ago, as Smollett is currently embroiled in one of Hollywood’s strangest and most surprising controversies. On Feb. 21, the 36-year-old actor turned himself into police on a felony charge of filing a false police report, with Chicago Police superintendent Eddie Johnson saying that—allegedly dissatisfied with his Empire salary—Smollett orchestrated a racist and homophobic attack against himself.

Smollett visited the Empire set the day of his surrender to apologize to the cast and crew, while still vehemently insisting that he would never do what he stands accused of. But the following day, despite Fox previously backing him, Empire’s executive producers released a statement revealing that the actor had been excised from the remainder of the fifth season: “The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us.... 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.”