Taye Diggs Says ‘Empire’ Should Bring Jussie Smollett Back

Empire co-creator Lee Daniels already said it’s not happening, but Taye Diggs thinks Jussie Smollett should be given a chance to return to the Fox series.

Diggs recently sat down with Black Hollywood Live’s “Inside The Black Actor’s Studio” on Afterbuzz TV, and said he thinks Smollet should be allowed to return to the hip-hop drama.

“I have no idea what people are going through. And to be honest, it’s kinda none of my business,” Diggs began. He [Smollett] is a good friend of mine. I love him. He’s, he’s only done right by me. So you know people go through things. It doesn’t change who he was and who he is to me. It doesn’t change, you know, the attention that we still need to pay to, you know, homophobic. Like, the people, people trip out, just because; whatever happened doesn’t mean that, that the issue that he stands for don’t still exist.”

Diggs then said he thought the decision to write Smollett out of the series last season, following his alleged attack, was made too quickly.

“If I am being honest, the smart thing would be to bring him back and, and let it interweave it into the, into the show, you know?” Diggs said. “I feel like, people, I may get in trouble for saying this, but they’re so quick to just, uh, to leave, to leave these people. You know what I mean? So quick to, to fire them, so quick to kind of, you know, throw them away as opposed to, you know, taking their time and, maybe letting it, let it, let it work toward, you know, the program or the job, or, you’d probably get to the bottom of it if he, if he stuck around.”

Diggs had a recurring role as Angelo DuBois on Empire between 2016 to 2017. But his comments may be a moot point, since Daniels said on June 4, Smollett’s character Jamal Lyon would not appear on the sixth and final season of the series.

“Jussie will NOT be returning to Empire,” Daniels tweeted, following reports that the embattled actor’s character was being re-worked into scripts for the series.

On January 29, Smollett claimed he was beaten up in Chicago by two masked men wearing “MAGA” hats. Police later said Smollett hired two friends to stage the attack.

Cook County prosecutors charged the actor with 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct for allegedly filing a false police report. Smollett maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty. On March 26, the state’s attorney’s office suddenly dropped the charges after Smollett agreed to forfeit his $10,000 bail and perform community service.

The case is now being given a second look by a special prosecutor in Chicago.