Empire Canceled By Fox After The Sixth Season As Jussie Smollett's Return Stays In Balance

After months of speculation, Fox has finally ended hip hop drama Empire.

The hit series created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong is being canceled after its upcoming fall season, according to Deadline.

“We’re Going Out With Guns Blazing”

Empire saw Terrence Howard play Lucious Lyon, the head of a music company he started from scratch. He must choose a successor among his three sons who are battling for control over his multimillion-dollar empire.

Jussie Smollett played the middle son of Lucious and his wife Cookie Lyon.

But after a tumultuous off screen year, he had effectively been written out of the show in season five.

Smollett’s fellow actors wrote a petition that he be reinstated for season six. But Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier says there is an option to have Smollett in the show’s sixth year.

The charges against Smollett were later dropped after he agreed to do community service and forfeit $10,000.

“The Ending The Fans Deserve”

Collier says the network plan to give loyal Empire followers a fitting finale.

“You allow fans to lean in and have the ending they deserve,” the CEO said.

“We are turning the final season into a large TV event, we are trying to go out guns a blazing,” Collier added.

Smollett played openly gay R&B star Jamal Lyon since the show’s premiere in 2015.

But the actor was written out of the final two episodes of the current season after Chicago police accused him of staging a racist, anti-gay attack against himself.