ABOVE PHOTO: Taraji P. Heson as Cookie.
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Mad tea was spilled regarding “Empire” Season 2 during a TV Academy event on Friday, including revelations about Cookie’s main story line, Chris Rock’s guest role and Jamal Lyon’s reign as the new head of Empire Records.
“He’s going to be a very passionate leader,” Jussie Smollett, who plays Jamal, told The Hollywood Reporter. “He’s going to lead with his heart and sometimes that’s going to get him in trouble.”
When we last saw “Empire” in March, label CEO Lucious (Terrence Howard) was thrown in jail and his middle son was put in charge. However, the battle for control of the company is just getting started.
“If season one was who will inherit the throne, season two is warring kingdoms,” said showrunner Ilene Chaiken.
One of those people fighting the hardest will be Cookie, who will return to her more ruthless beginnings when the show returns. “She’s getting back to what she did when she built the empire,” said Henson. “She’s been tucked away for 17 years. Now she’s been out for some time so you get to see the Cookie that actually built Empire back in the day, starting from nothing.”
Despite her character’s close bond with Lucious at times during season, Cookie will embrace going solo for as long as she can. “She think it’s good for her because women, we’re always the brains behind the operations anyways,” said Henson. “But at the core of who she is, she knows he won’t be in there long. He has money, he has lawyers, he has people. Her thing is: how much I can accomplish before he gets out?”
Cookie will also be busy with “two new love interests,” this upcoming season, according to Henson, and those aren’t the only new faces coming. In the season finale, Andre (Trai Byers) and Rhonda (Kaitlin Doubleday) learned they have a baby on the way.
“Its lovely to watch the growth of that actually becoming a family,” said Byers. “It makes him more mature, it centers things for him a little bit more and whatever he does is for his family now.”
Andre’s newfound spirituality will also continue to play a role in his evolution. “Andre is trying to become something different with his spirituality and with his baby on the way so I would say that that would affect him in the way that he deals with the people in his family, even Jamal,” said Byers. “Ultimately, there’s a lot of rivalry but there’s a lot of love in this family.”
Chris Rock
Like the first season, which welcomed the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg among many others, season two will see the arrivals of Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Chris Rock, the latter who “will be a person from the past. For maybe all,” said co-creator Danny Strong.
However, Chaiken said the writers are making sure to not let the famous faces popping in overshadowing the core group. “The biggest challenge, I feel, is to stay true to the stories, to stay true to the characters,” said Chaiken. “To make sure that Empire continues to be about this family and these relationships and not to loose sight of that in the midst of all of the fabulous opportunities to bring great guest stars onto this show which we are going to do, but Empire is the Lyons.”
Another challenge facing the writers is the increased episode order. Season two will consist of 18 episodes – six more than season one – and be split into two parts, the first part running for 10 episodes, according to Chaiken.
“I was concerned about doing 18 episodes, about keeping the show at the same level of quality as first season. I wasn’t confident about it, but I’ve been told that that’s what it is so now we’re jumping in and we’re just trying to do the best we can,” said Strong. “It’s a really challenging show to put together. It doesn’t have a cookie cutter model.”
Chaiken is more confident that the show, and also the songs, will remain up to par. “I believe there are endless stories in this universe,” said Chaiken. “We just had to take a deep breath and dive down to do our 18 episodes but we ‘re confident that we’re going to deliver every single episode with the same level of quality, with the same number of musical moments as we did in season one.”
But most importantly, will Cookie’s infamous one-liners continue make waves, and memes?
“It’s a little soon to say but I have great faith that Cookie will continue to deliver in every way,” said Chaiken.
“Empire” returns for season two on Sept. 23 on Fox.
Taraji P. Henson shares premiere date for ‘Empire’ Season 2
By Tambay A. Obenson
Shadow and Act
A tweet from co-star of the show – and a key reason for its popularity – Taraji P. Henson, posted to Twitter this morning, after a fan asked.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Fox executives revealed that season 2 of “Empire” will unfold over 18 episodes (the first season had 12), split into 2 halves, premiering in the fall (instead of as a mid-season replacement, which was the case during its first season), with the second half in the winter of 2016.
Also revealed, in an effort to maintain fan engagement until the fall, the cast of the hit series will be doing concerts this summer, in addition to other promotional efforts that kick off in June.
Fox says fans should expect even more “big-time” guest stars for next season, although they didn’t offer any specific names.
And finally, Ne-Yo and Timberland will write songs for season 2.
The series will remain in its Wednesday night, 9PM time-slot because, “We’d be crazy to move it. We want to thank and reward our fans by leaving it in is timeslot.”
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