'Empire' Season 2 Cast News: EP Says Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey Won't Be In Show
Following months of speculation about the possible appearances of such celebrity guest stars like Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey in the second season of the show, "Empire" co-creator and executive producer Danny Strong has spoken up and shot down the rumors once and for all.
"None of those people are going to actually be on the show so I can't control what names all of a sudden take off as being guest stars because they're not," Strong, who was speaking from the Fox's winter press tour party, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday.
Echoing his own comments from last year, Strong said, "In the second half of the season its going to be way lighter on the celebrity guest stars." In December, Strong told Deadline, "I do think we've had too many guest stars and we've already started course-correcting in the last portion of this first part of Season 2, especially in the tail end."
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In the December interview, Strong also commented on an earlier announcement that Winfrey might be making an appearance on the show, calling it "premature." Lee Daniels, the show's co-creator, had revealed to THR in March 2015 that he was negotiating the media proprietor's guest role. Then, in August, Daniels told the crowd at Carey's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony that the singer will be guesting on the Fox drama series.
Previous "Empire" guest stars include Alicia Keys, Estelle, Rosie O'Donnell, Vivica A. Fox, Mary J. Blige, Petey Pablo, Rita Ora, Patti LaBelle, Pitbull, Gladys Knight, Snoop Dogg, Ne-Yo, Nicole Richie, Timbaland, and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
The third season of "Empire" was announced at the Television Critics Association's press tour on Friday. According to Strong, he doesn't want Season 3 to run for more than 18 episodes, saying, "It's hard to pull the show off."
"Empire" debuts the second half of its second season on Wednesday, March 30, at 9 p.m. on Fox.
