Entertainment Weekly has some exclusive Empire casting news: Kill Bill’s Vivica A. Fox is joining the show for season two as Cookie Lyon’s (Taraji P. Henson) older sister. We’ve already met Cookie’s younger sister Carol (Tasha Smith), who’s mostly shown support for Empire’s pretender to the throne. But EW reports that Fox’s character will likely be more of a thorn in Cookie’s side.
Cookie’s eldest sister remains nameless for now, but she reportedly comes from the more “troublesome” side of the family. Fox will debut her role on Fox in the 8th episode of the new season. Her arrival could be the test-drive for that Empire spinoff the show’s co-creator, Lee Daniels, hinted at earlier this summer. Daniels is confident that there’s plenty of story in Cookie’s past to warrant a separate show about her pre-prison-and-Empire days.
Daniels also recently brought The Butler’s Clarence Williams III on board as Lucious Lyon’s (Terence Howard) mentor. The Wrap reports that Williams, who played Linc Hayes on The Mod Squad, will guest star as Huey Jarvis, a music mogul in his own right. Jarvis still has a lot of clout in the industry as the host of a weekly “Living Room” series that practically guarantees music awards to its guests. It’s not yet known when Williams will make his first appearance, but Empire returns on September 23.