Like the first season, which welcomed the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg among many others, season two will see the arrivals of Alicia Keys, Lenny Kravitz and Chris Rock, the latter who “will be a person from the past. For maybe all,” said co-creator Danny Strong.
However, Chaiken said the writers are making sure to not let the famous faces popping in overshadowing the core group.
“The biggest challenge, I feel, is to stay true to the stories, to stay true to the characters,” said Chaiken. “To make sure that Empire continues to be about this family and these relationships and not to lose sight of that in the midst of all of the fabulous opportunities to bring great guest stars onto this show which we are going to do, but Empire is the Lyons.”
Another challenge facing the writers is the increased episode order. Season two will consist of 18 episodes – six more than season one – and be split into two parts, the first part running for 10 episodes, according to Chaiken.
“I was concerned about doing 18 episodes, about keeping the show at the same level of quality as first season. I wasn’t confident about it, but I’ve been told that that’s what it is, so now we’re jumping in and we’re just trying to do the best we can,” said Strong. “It’s a really challenging show to put together. It doesn’t have a cookie cutter model.”
Chaiken is more confident that the show, and also the songs, will remain up to par.
“I believe there are endless stories in this universe,” said Chaiken. “We just had to take a deep breath and dive down to do our 18 episodes but we ‘re confident that we’re going to deliver every single episode with the same level of quality, with the same number of musical moments as we did in season one.”
But most importantly, will Cookie’s infamous one-liners continue make waves, and memes?
“It’s a little soon to say but I have great faith that Cookie will continue to deliver in every way,” said Chaiken.
Empire returns for season two on Sept. 23 on Fox.
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