“Empire” Showrunner Talks The Possibility Of A Spinoff, The Series Finale And Jussie Smollett

Empire showrunner Brett Mahoney talks about the musical drama series coming to an end, a spinoff centered around Cookie Lyon and Jussie Smollet not being a part of the series.

Fox’s “Empire” has been on our television screens for five years, and while it has now officially come to an end, Mahoney says he hopes his audience enjoyed its finale. “I think it’s a fulfilling finale in the sense that it has the spirit that we want. But no, it’s not completely fulfilling because I do feel there are elements, for instance, the who blew up Cookie’s car, who shot Lucious, that we were not able to fulfill in this finale,” said Mahoney of last night’s episode. The show came to a close with six seasons, with the final season-ending two episodes early due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to Deadline. 

Production for the show ceased last month, but Mahoney let Deadline in on a few of his thoughts about the season ending and what’s next. In terms of the show actually being over for good, Mahoney says that he hopes to be able to give viewers the finale episode that they initially wanted. “I mean, the hope and dream and prayer of all of us is that we actually can shoot the finale that we intended. Now, of course, the complications are when will that be, when is production going to be able to be up and running again, and when that date happens, will everyone be available? What about the stages? What about the cost? But I mean, we all do have a will to come together and shoot the actual finale,” said Mahoney.

He added that if not for COVID-19, he would be more fulfilled with the finale episode that they planned for. “I think it’s a fulfilling finale in the sense that it has the spirit that we want. But no, it’s not completely fulfilling because I do feel there are elements, for instance, the who blew up Cookie’s car, who shot Lucious, that we were not able to fulfill in this finale.”

Mahoney said that the end of the Lyons family has truly come, but there are still individual adventures he’d like to explore with the characters. “Definitely the end of the story and definitely the feeling would have been, you would have had a sense of conclusion, and it didn’t mean in the sense of no more Lyons, but you would definitely see that the Lyons are moving onto something new and different,” Mahoney said.

As far as Smollett being a part of the finale, Mahoney says that was never going to happen. “No. I would say there was never a plan to have Jussie in the finale.” The show, which was created by Lee Daniels and Danny Strong, may be ending, but a spinoff could possibly be in the works. I” think that there’s such an appetite still, and they’re so beloved, I could imagine that both the network and the studio would want to find somewhere, I don’t know what that is, and I’m not a part of it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was trying to work on something.”

Would you all like to see a spinoff, and if so, with what character?