Empire season 5: Police deny Jussie Smollett – ‘hoax’ rumors; Fox issues new statement
Most of them today stem from local ABC reporter Rob Elgas, who cited multiple sources in his claim that the attack on Smollett earlier this year was staged due to the actor being written off the show later on this season. (There have been rumors about a key death coming later this season.)
However, since the time of this report there have been multiple denials, starting with the Chicago Police Department itself. In a statement, here is what Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi had to say on the subject:
Media reports [about] the Empire incident being a hoax are unconfirmed by case detectives. Supt Eddie Johnson has contacted [ABC 7 Chicago] to state on the record that we have no evidence to support their reporting and their supposed CPD sources are uninformed and inaccurate.
Meanwhile, Fox and the studio 20th Century Fox TV issued a joint statement tonight, one in which they denied the reports that he was being written off the show:
“The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off of Empire is patently ridiculous … He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him.”
This is obviously still a developing story, but one thing is certainly clear at this point: It’s also a super-complicated story and more than likely, it’s only going to get more complicated over time. There have been so many rumors and complications at the moment and we have to wait and see where things are going to go from here.
Ultimately, the best thing that needs to be done at the moment is just wait and see what the final results are of the investigation. Otherwise, the world just devolves into everyone sniping on social media about who is right — which is basically what this world is coming to at this point.
Empire is currently on hiatus, but is slated to return with new episodes on Fox next month. We’ll have more news in the context of the show itself soon enough. The series is charting towards a season 6 renewal, which will probably be confirmed a little bit later in the spring.
For now, be sure to let us know what you think about some of the latest rumors surrounding Jussie now in the comments. (Photo: Fox.)