This is not the way any show wants to wrap its final season on air but the coronavirus pandemic has turned the industry upside down. The latest casualty of the pandemic is the final season of Fox’s Empire, which will now not have a proper series finale to wrap up the show.
Empire had to shutdown production due to COVID-19 when they were in the middle of episode 19. The final season was set for 20 episodes so that means the final completed episode is episode 18 and that will now serve as the series finale. The news was revealed at the end of Tuesday’s episode during a promo that stated “Get ready for the shocking final three episodes of Empire.” Next week’s episode is number 16 so that means the promo reveals the series will end early with episode 18.
The series finale will air on April 21 and to help make the conclusion a bit more seamless the newly minted finale will likely feature footage from Episode 19, which was halfway through filming when the health crisis paused all Hollywood production. It’s still sad to think that the once monster series, which broke ratings records for gains during its first season, will not have a formal series finale to properly wrap things up and episode 20 will never see the light of day. This is not how a show like this wants to end its run.
Empire was one of only two broadcast series whose final season shoots were impacted by the mass production shutdown in mid-March amid the pandemic. The CW’s Supernatural, which had also completed 18 episodes of its 20-episode order, ended up airing 13 episodes this season and plans to film the last two episodes for a 7-episode run at a later date. At least Supernatural will get to end its 15 season run properly, even if it will come later than anticipating.
”Deadline” is reporting that this may not be the end of the Empire brand. The bosses at Fox have been mulling a potential spinoff headlined by Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson as the larger-than-life Cookie Lyon. Creators Lee Daniels and Danny Strong are said to be very open to the idea but Empire as we know it is dimming with a whimper as another industry victim of this global pandemic.
