Jussie Smollett has been stripped off the final two episodes of “Empire” Season 5 after staging false race attack, according to an official statement released on Friday by Fox.
“The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us,” read the statement from “Empire” co-creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, showrunner Brett Mahoney, and executive producers Brian Grazer, Sanaa Hamri, Francie Calfo and Dennis Hammer.
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“Jussie has been an important member of our ‘Empire’ family for the past five years and we care about him deeply,” the statement continued. “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.”
The decision to remove Smollett from the remaining episodes of Season 5 comes after “Empire” studio 20th Century Fox stated Thursday morning it was “considering [its] options” on the actor’s situation.
