Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stars on screen
Back to the P.D.: The Windy City’s emergency services may be experiencing a bit of a shakeup right now, but trust Jon Seda (“Treme”) to land on his feet. With roughly a month before “Chicago P.D.’s” fifth season premieres Wednesday, Sept. 27, the NBC drama welcomes back an old face.
The Chicago franchise’s fourth entry, “Chicago Justice,” was canceled in May after just one season, but its star, Seda, isn’t out of work. He’s headed back to “Chicago P.D.,” in which he starred until its fourth season when he left to headline the doomed “Justice.” It’s no surprise that he’s being welcomed back to his old show; Seda has definitely become one of the main faces of the Chicago franchise. He got his start in “Chicago Fire” as a recurring character before graduating to a fulltime gig headlining “Chicago P.D.” when it launched in 2014.
Sadly, Seda’s return coincides with another cast member’s departure. Sophia Bush (“One Tree Hill”), who was part of “Chicago P.D.’s” original cast, has announced that she’s not coming back for the next season, although there’s some speculation that the actress, who plays Det. Erin Lindsay, will return as a guest star to help wrap up her character’s dangling plot threads.
The Chicago franchise launched in 2012 with “Chicago Fire,” and each series focuses on the private and professional lives of the city’s first responders: firefighters, police officers, emergency medical workers and legal teams. (The latter doesn’t really fit into the “first responder” category, though, does it? Maybe that’s part of why it didn’t last.) The entire franchise is intertwined, with each series using many of the same locations as well as overlapping storylines — and, as Seda has shown, sometimes characters even move from series to series. It’s a big city, after all.
“Chicago Justice” may have only lasted one season, but Jon Seda remains a franchise mainstay. “Chicago P.D.” returns to NBC Wednesday, Sept. 27.
‘Empire’ of Whitaker: Director and producer Lee Daniels is returning to a partnership that’s brought him enormous success. He teamed up with Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning actor Forest Whitaker for 2013’s critically acclaimed “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” and now the actor has been asked to join one of Daniels’s television projects.
Fox’s “Empire” returns for a fourth season Wednesday, Sept. 27. Whitaker, who earned an Oscar for his powerful performance in “The Last King of Scotland” (2006), and an Emmy for TV movie “Door to Door” (2002), will guest star throughout the season as “Uncle Eddie,” a music icon who gave Lucious (Terrence Howard, “Law & Order: Lost Angeles”) his first shot many years ago.
The appearance of such a decorated actor isn’t the only big news that’s been released about next month’s premiere. “Empire” is just one of Daniels’ two Fox dramas. “Star” is headlined by Queen Latifah (“Chicago,” 2002), and both series are set to premiere on the same night with a very special crossover weaving the two together. Latifah will appear in “Empire,” while that show’s Jussie Smollett (“Alien: Covenant,” 2017) will play a part in the evening’s “Star” premiere.
Last season’s “Empire” finale had an explosive ending — literally. As Lucious begins the long road to recovery in the new season, his feuding family members all feed their own interests. The nail-biting, backstabbing drama returns, featuring the decorated Forest Whitaker, when the season premiere of “Empire” airs Wednesday, Sept. 27, on Fox.