Actor Jussie Smollett may be seeing his return to Empire soon.

According to Showrunner Brett Mahoney during an interview with TV Line, the show is in discussions with Smollett about possibly resuming his role for the Empire finale.

“It would be weird in my mind to end this family show and this family drama of which he was such a significant part of without seeing him,” Mahoney says. “It’s fair to say it’s being discussed, but there’s no plan as of yet to bring him back. There’s been no decision made.”

Jussie Smollett was written out of the Fox series “Empire” after it was discovered that he fabricated his story claiming he was beaten up by men who yelled “This is MAGA country!” and put a noose around his neck.

Jussie departed at the last two episodes of season five when the show wrote out his character by adding  Smollet’s character and husband went on a honeymoon before relocating to London in the storyline. Despite the allegations against Jussie, his cast mates have continued to stand in solidarity with the actor and have been vocal about missing him from the set. During an interview on the red carpet with Extra, Terrence Howard shared his views on the situation adding that while he misses Smollett, the absence of the continued media drama was refreshing.

“It hurts. It’s like losing a son, but it’s nice not having all of the media circus around regarding all of the things that took place,” Howard said.

Although Hollywood has moved on and is seemingly trying to help Smollett get back to work, the Chicago Police Department hasn’t gotten the memo.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, Lawyers for the city of Chicago as well as several officers who are being sued by the actor for “malicious prosecution” are asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. They are looking for the lawsuit to be tossed because the “Empire” star could still be looking at charges for allegedly faking a hate crime.

In a 14 page letter, the city requests for the lawsuit to be dismissed pointing out that Jussie Smollett is still facing a possible indictment. Smollett’ s lawyers fired back with their own 16-page letter pointing out that while no charges have been filed against Smollett—he has been tried in the public, resulting in humiliation and loss of work among other things.

The city’s lawyers argued in court on Monday that despite Smollett’s claims, the criminal proceedings were not terminated. In fact, Cook County Judge Michael Toomin appointed attorney Dann Webb to investigate evidence against Smollett, which could result in him issuing the actor new charges.

“Smollett’s criminal proceeding is thus not over — an investigation into his potential crimes is ongoing and criminal charges may well be re-instituted. For this reason alone, Smollett’s malicious prosecution claim fails,” said the city’s lawyers.

The lawsuit was filed by the city of Chicago after the city spent $130,106 to investigating a hate crime against Smollett, which allegedly ended up being a false claim made by the actor. They are now looking to recover those funds.

The final season of Empire is slated to wrap in 2020.

 

Source: HipHopWired.com

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