"Empire" Season 2 showrunner Ilene Chaiken recently opened up about the FOX series' premiere episode.
In an interview with TV Line, Chaiken said that they contemplated on whether or not they should make the pilot episode for Season 2 less scandalous than Season 1. However, they ultimately realized that there's really no stopping the show, and so they agreed to include the biggest shocker for the season.
"We came out of season 1feeline like, 'There's no reason this show should stop or slow down. In fact, it's not a challenge to figure out where to take stories, it's a challenge to figure out which stories not to tell - because there are so many possibilities," he said.
Meanwhile, Chaiken also weighed in on the premiere episode for the season. The exec revealed that he and Danny Strong had such a great time writing the script.
"We had a blast working on the script. And it felt like the actors were really happy to be reunited with those characters," he said.
"Empire" Season 2 premiered with Cookie, Andre, Hakeem and Anika trying to take over Empire Entertainment. They decided to seek $250 million from an investor named Mimi who agreed to team up with them.
However, before the episode ended, Mimi changed her mind, and she decided to team up with Jamal and Lucious instead, according to Deadline. In an attempt to seal the deal further, Jamal decided to freeze all of Hakeem's records. He also decided to cut his mother off.
In other news, Chris Rock also appeared in the premiere episode of "Empire" Season 2 to portray the role of Frank Gathers. It was revealed that Frank was Cookie and Lucious' boss from their drug dealing days. Frank also discovered that it was Cookie who reported him to the police.
"Empire" Season 2 airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
