The curtain is closing on Empire earlier than expected. The Fox drama, now in its sixth and final season, shut down production in the wake of the coronavirus spread and will not start back up and shoot the planned series finale.
In a promo with the Tuesday, March 31 episode, Fox teased the series will wrap up on Tuesday, April 21 with its episode 18. Season six had a 20-episode order and production stopped while the cast and crew were making Empire season six's episode 19.