It is almost impossible to imagine anyone other than Terrence Howard playing the ruthless hip-hop mogul Lucious Lyon on Fox’s smash-hit series Empire. His undeniable chemistry with Taraji P. Henson’s legendary Cookie Lyon was pure television gold, anchoring the show’s massive success.
However, according to actor Kris D. Lofton, the original casting plan looked completely different, and it involved action star Wesley Snipes.
During a recent appearance on the TFU podcast, Lofton, who fans will remember as the brash Creedmoor Records rapper Kidd Fo-Fo in season one, discussed the creation of the hip-hop drama.
Before landing his recurring guest spot, Lofton revealed he was actually on the verge of closing a deal to play Lucious’s youngest son, Hakeem Lyon. But while his own casting shifted, other changes were happening higher on the call sheet.
According to Lofton, the studio originally had its sights set on Snipes to play the patriarch of the Lyon family. At the time, Snipes had recently been released from federal prison, and executives allegedly saw an opportunity to secure a high-profile movie star on a network budget.
“They felt like… ‘Well, Wesley Snipes is getting out of prison. We can kind of probably get him for cheaper than what he’s actually worth,'” Lofton explained on the podcast. The network was already paying top dollar for Henson, and they were unsure if they could afford to pay two massive stars as their number one and two leads.
However, Henson wasn’t sold on the pairing. Trusting her creative instincts, she knew exactly who she needed to spar with on screen to make the family dynamic work.
“Taraji was just like… ‘I just know that this will be the best show ever if you get Terrence Howard,'” Lofton recalled.
When executives hesitated, Henson gave an ultimatum: she threatened to respectfully bow out of the project entirely if they didn’t at least offer the part to her Hustle & Flow co-star.
This power play threw the network into a complete tailspin. Facing a looming deadline to present the project to the studio, executives panicked over the possibility of losing their leading lady. Interestingly, this frantic scramble actually explains another infamous piece of Empire lore, Mo’Nique‘s involvement.
Because Henson threatened to walk, creator Lee Daniels and his team had to quickly secure a backup plan for the role of Cookie just in case. They reached out to Oscar-winner Mo’Nique, with whom Daniels had just worked on Precious.
“They were like, ‘Oh sh*t, we have to show the studio something by this day. She just threatened to possibly quit… We need to know now who could possibly come in and fill this,'” Lofton noted. “So they made a call to her like, ‘Hey, Mo’Nique, I may or may not have something for you. Stay by your phone.'”
Ultimately, Howard said yes to the role of Lucious Lyon. Henson stayed on board, and Mo’Nique was left waiting for a phone call that never came.
Check out the full interview.
