"Empire" season 2 cast is definitely much bigger than the first with more and more movie and music stars being listed.
While this sounds like a good news to the fans of hit Fox musical drama, rumors have it that the show is bulking up its cast to hide their decision to demote Terrence Howard who plays lead character Lucius Lyon.
Recent reports claim Terrence Howard is being scaled back. He is still part of the "Empire" season 2 cast but his role will not be as big as the previous season.
None of this is true according to a Fox representative who contacted Access Hollywood.
"Despite rumblings that the size of Terrence Howard's role in Season 2 of Fox's "Empire" would dramatically change, Access Hollywood has learned otherwise. Rumors that Terrence's role in 'Empire' will be scaled back are patently untrue, as audiences will see when the series returns Wednesday, September 23 on Fox."
Howard's "demotion" was first reported by New York Daily's Page Six who point to the actor's off screen drama as the reason why he will be scaled back.
"What they are doing is two-fold," Page Six wrote quoting its source. "They have him locked up so you won't be seeing him in as many scenes. But they are bringing in so many, and I mean so many, guest stars and cameos that the average viewer won't realize it because there is so much going on."
Meanwhile, "Empire" season 2 cast of guest stars is making headlines. The line up include Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Chris Rock, Common, Tyrese Gibson, Ludcaris, and more. Although there will be a smorgasbord of entertainment industry's top names, showrunner Ilene Chaiken insists "Empire" will still be about Lucius and Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson).
"Don't worry about the guest casting, because Empire is about the Lyon family and they're always going to be the more important thing," she said in an interview with TV Line.
"Our rule for ourselves, even though all of these fabulous people are being presented to us on these lovely silver platters, is that we're going to tell our stories, and if [guest stars] fit into our stories, fantastic. 'So-and-so wants to be on Empire, and we've got this story, and she would be great as this character.' Every once in a while, we might spend a bit of time figuring out what we can do with a certain person who really wants to be on the show, but if it doesn't fit, we don't do it."
"Empire" season 2 release date is Sept. 23.
