Jussie Smollett Will Appear in Next Week's Episode of 'Empire'

ET has learned that when Empire returns next Wednesday, March 13, Jussie Smollett will be appearing in the spring premiere episode.



On the show, the 36-year-old actor plays Jamal Lyon, the son of Lucious (Terrence Howard) and Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson), who run a hip-hop and entertainment company.



When the show left off on in December, Jamal defended his father against his fiance Kai, who wants to expose Lucious. While Smollett will not be appearing in the season's final 2 episodes, it is unclear how Jamal's story will wrap up this season. Per Fox, the synopsis for the upcoming episode states: Jamal and Kai try to figure out where they stand and a mystery begins to unravel.



News of Smollett’s appearance in next week's episode comes roughly two weeks after the 36-year-old actor was released on a $10,000 bond after being charged with filing a fake police report, a class 4 felony which carries with it a maximum penalty of three years in prison.



The allegations against Smollett stem from an alleged staged attack on the actor in late January, which Chicago Police now believe to be a hoax orchestrated by Smollett to further his career. They also allege that, prior to the attack, he sent himself a threatening letter, which did not receive the attention he had hoped it would.

After his arrest, Smollett's legal team fiercely proclaimed his innocence, writing in a statement: "Today we witnessed an organized law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system. The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr. Smollett and notably, on the eve of a Mayoral election."

"Mr. Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity, who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing," the statement continued.