Fox CEO Charlie Collier on Wednesday
confirmed that out actor Jussie Smollett won't appear on the final
season of Empire.
Collier made his remarks during a TCA
panel in Hollywood.
“We as much as anything in case like
this, you try to get all the information and make a good decision,”
Collier explained. “[Creator Lee Daniels] is right, there’s no
plans for Jussie to return to Empire … typically it’s
about gathering right info and making sure we’re making the right
decisions.”
Smollett plays gay musician Jamal Lyon
on the Fox drama.
In June, Daniels said that Smollett
would not return for the show's final season.
Smollett's future on the show came into
question after a grand jury in Chicago indicted him on 16 counts of
disorderly conduct for reporting a homophobic hate crime that police
believe was staged by the actor. The charges were suddenly dropped in
March. Smollett has consistently asserted that he's innocent of any
wrongdoing.