Actor Jussie Smollett will not appear in the final two episodes of Empire following his arrest for allegedly filing a false police report on Thursday.
The show's executive producers revealed the news in a statement released on Friday which read: "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' [Smollett's character] from the final two episodes of the season."
The 36-year-old actor has protested his innocence after being charged with disorderly conduct and allegedly filing a false police report over the alleged homophobic and racist attack on him in Chicago last month.
Smollett has claimed he was the victim of a brutal assault in Chicago in January, but the city's police department has claimed the incident was staged because the actor was "dissatisfied" with his salary and wanted to raise his profile.
The Empire star was released on $100,000 bail on Thursday and the 36-year-old's legal team subsequently released a statement on his behalf.
"Mr Smollett is a young man of impeccable character and integrity who fiercely and solemnly maintains his innocence and feels betrayed by a system that apparently wants to skip due process and proceed directly to sentencing," the statement read.
"Today we witnessed an organised law enforcement spectacle that has no place in the American legal system," the statement continued.
"The presumption of innocence, a bedrock in the search for justice, was trampled upon at the expense of Mr Smollett and notably, on the eve of a Mayoral election," the statement claimed.
Smollett is due back in court next month.
