“Empire” Season 2 is approaching, and Fox has released an action-packed trailer to hype its sophomore return featuring guest stars Chris Rock and Marisa Tomei.
With patriarch and Empire Entertainment founder Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) serving time for murder, there’s an inevitable power struggle happening back in the boardroom.
The dramatic preview opens with Lucious telling Cookie (Taraji P. Henson), “I never stopped loving you. I tried but it never went away,” while she visits him behind bars.
“You miss me?” asks his former wife, without an ounce of emotion.
While Lucious struggles with prison life, his family attempts to overthrow him as CEO of the company he built. “In 24 hours, you will have our company,” Cookie tells her son, Andre (Trai Byers).
However, Tomei’s character, venture capitalist Mimi Whiteman, has other ideas. “Lucious Lyon is Empire, without him, the company is nothing,” she says.
Rapper Ludacris is also set to guest star as a cop who crosses paths with Lucious in prison.
“Empire’s” ratings exploded right out of the gate in its rookie season. The show drew an average of 16.7 million viewers for its two-hour Season 1 finale in March, and scored a whopping 6.5 rating/20 share in the advertiser-sought 18-49 demographic.
“Empire” returns for its second season on Fox Sept. 23 at 9 p.m.
Watch the trailer above.