Jussie Smollett's scenes on Empire have been drastically cut back and writers are scrambling to come up with changes to make up for the gaps, it has been claimed.
TMZ cites anonymous production sources who say that the 36-year-old had nine key scenes in the new string of episodes of the Fox show and one big musical but that they have been cut.
Empire is in its fifth season. It last aired on December 5 and is due to return to screens in the spring but a date for the 10th episode of the season has not yet been announced.
It is still being filmed but Smollett, who was due to appear in at least nine prominent scenes and have his own musical in the new episode, will now only be in eight and will appear on-screen with other characters.
He is now required on set far less, according to the report.
In the last episode of the show, his character, Jamal Lyon, one of the son's Terrance Howard's musical mogul character's sons.
Jussie Smollett's scenes in the new episodes of Empire that are set to air in the spring have been reduced, according to sources
Smollett, shown top left on set, plays Jamal Lyon, the middle son of Terrance Howard's hip hop mogul character and his wife, Cookie, who is played by Taraji Henson
The show's writers are now trying to come up with ways to fill in the gaps, they added.
A representative for Fox, which owns the show, did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's inquiries about the claims on Tuesday morning.
They declined to comment on Monday when asked if Jussie's role had been affected by the latest developments in the shocking and unpredictable case.
On Monday, it was reported that the star may now face felony charges for filling a false police report about the January 29 attack he says he suffered and which shocked the world.
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