As fans ooze with excitement and anticipation for all that is yet to unfold in the official final season of #FoxEmpire; its becoming more apparent to address the obvious elephant in the room. The absence of the Lyon’s family most impactful cub #JamalLyon formally played by #JussieSmollett. Within a recent interview the show’s leading man #TerrenceHoward shared exactly how he’s feeling since the drastic alteration and how the show will never be quite the same.
According to #BETNews ; Howard made a guest appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Sept 24th to promote the new season. It has been stated that Howard revealed how heavily Jussie’s unexpected exit from the show has impacted everyone full circle.
“I was so proud of that young man that played my son, because he still loved me at the end of it, and all he wanted to do was get closer to me,” Howard says of Smollett’s character’s story line on the show. “And then out of nowhere, he’s snatched away from us… He was the heart of our show, and now it’s like our show is on a blood, a heart and lung bypass machine because the heart is gone, but we’re still hoping that there’s going to be a transplant, and hoping somehow it will come back together.
Smollett was accused of staging an attack on himself earlier this year. Smollett had forwarded in-depth details of a physical altercation that consisted of both racial and homophobic slurs issued at him by two men that were later identified to be his own personal trainers. At one point he was was facing a multitude of criminal charges behind the alleged staging the attack however details of the incident stuck more than others and Jussie was cleared. It wasn’t too long before Fox Empire creator #LeeDaniels announced the removal of Smollett’s character from the show.
“I don’t know what it was like, because we are still trying to figure it out,” he said. “We are all still trying to put the pieces together because my son is gone. That was my little boy, and he’s gone now, and they don’t mention him as if it’s OK. And it’s like, no, that’s not cool.”
It would be a lie to say that neither Jussie or Jamal would be missed from the show’s storyline. For the last few years Jussie delivered life and emotion into a character that will live in our hearts forever!