‘Empire’ season 3 spoilers: Show boss touches on Jamal, possibly more Mariah Carey

The third season of “Empire” is going to be premiering on Fox come Wednesday night, and with that, you better be prepared for some surprises … and also death. After all, odds are that we’re losing either Rhonda or Anika within the opening minutes, and saying goodbye to either could be devastating given that they bring a lot of energy and uniqueness to the series.

No matter what happens, though, life will go on — though for many characters it won’t necessarily be easy. Speaking to TVLine, executive producer Ilene Chaiken details a little bit of what Jamal will be working with both in the wake of what happens to these ladies, and then also what transpired with him getting shot near the end of season 2:

“Jamal’s story for Season 3 is very much one of recovery. Even though we have a lot of fun on Empire, and we can get a little wild sometimes, there are things we take very seriously, too. And getting shot is a serious thing. We weren’t going to make light of it or minimize it. We wanted to talk about the meaning of that incident in Jamal’s life and in the world, and look at the process of coming back from that. It’s going to be a long and harrowing journey, and it’s going to be a journey that brings him into an even sharper reckoning with his family and Lucious’ own darkness.”

While you’ll be getting a ton of emotion in this story, there will be some other avenues for some great fun this season. Specifically, you’re going to see some of that via an appearance from Mariah Carey as a pop superstar named Kitty. We know she’ll be around for a one-off, and at the same time, Chaiken makes it clear that we could see her again at some other point moving forward.

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