Fans blast Jussie Smollett's role on 'Empire' after charges were dropped against him

On Wednesday night’s Empire, Jussie Smollett continued his role as Jamal Lyon after prosecutors dropped all charges against the actor for allegedly hiring two brothers to stage a hate crime against him. After the charges were dropped, Smollett stated, “I would not be my mother’s son if I was capable of one drop of what I’ve been accused of. This has been an incredibly difficult time. Honestly, one of the worst of my entire life.”

The dismissal of charges against Smollett angered the Chicago Police Department and local officials, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel calling it a “whitewash of justice.” Many Empire fans, meanwhile, believe that the actor should not be allowed to reprise his role on the show and took to Twitter to express their opinions.

While many fans are angered by the dismissal of charges against Smollett, the actor has received support from celebrities and his co-stars.

Co-star Taraji P. Henson also expressed her support of Smollett, telling USA Today, “I’m happy that the truth has finally been set free, because I knew it all along.”

Smollett was previously set to be written out of the show’s final two episodes. In February, the producers of the show and Fox released a joint statement explaining their decision to remove the actor from the show’s final episodes: “The events of the past few weeks have been incredibly emotional for all of us. Jussie has been an important member of our Empire family for the past five years and we care about him deeply. While these allegations are very disturbing, we are placing our trust in the legal system as the process plays out. We are also aware of the effects of this process on the cast and crew members who work on our show and to avoid further disruption on set, we have decided to remove the role of Jamal from the final two episodes of the season.”

Now that the charges have been dropped, it’s unclear whether or not the star will reprise his role on the series. Wednesday night’s episode gave few hints as to the fate of Jamal Lyon,.

Empire airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. on Fox. Watch clips and full episodes of Empire for free on Yahoo View.

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Check out Jussie Smollett’s controversial return to ‘Empire’ getting mocked on Twitter:

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