‘Empire’ Season 2 Spoilers: Will Lucious Really Kill Hakeem? Showrunner Teases What’s To Come With Family Beef

Losing Empire has put Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) in a dark place on Fox’s “Empire” Season 2. He will now stop at nothing to get back the kingdom he built, even if that means going through his youngest son Hakeem (Bryshere Y. Gray).

In the closing moments of episode 11, Lucious gave Hakeem an opportunity to kill him before he goes after him, but Hakeem refused. Lucious will now take on Hakeem after promising he will end his life. Will Lucious really turn to murder as a solution again?

Showrunner Ilene Chaiken told the Hollywood Reporter that you can’t discount the fact that Lucious is certainly capable of killing his own son, especially after he shot and killed his best friend Bunkie (Antoine McKay) in Season 1. However, she sees what Lucious is doing to Hakeem as more of a test.

“I would like to think that Lucious is trying to help Hakeem become a man, and help him to understand the seriousness of his actions and to make the best choices, and I think he's also testing him,” Chaiken dished. “I'm not sure that Lucious knows what the outcome will be, but he's testing Hakeem to see what kind of a man he is and whether he's worth the trouble he's caused.”

Lucious has been on a war path ever since Hakeem voted to have him removed as CEO of Empire. Hakeem has now been given the keys to Lucious’ kingdom after Camilla (Naomi Campbell) helped him become the new CEO. In episode 12, Hakeem is expected to come into his own as the new boss of the record label by executing a few of his ideas. The rest of the Lyons will look to get Camilla out of the picture and bring the family back together again.

While it’s unclear if Lucious will really murder his own son, the promo video for episode 12 teases Lucious potentially gunning down Camilla. Camilla is shown in tears saying, “He’ll never forgive you.” Lucious then coldly responds, “You’re gonna be dead.”

Watch a promo video for episode 12 below:

“Empire” Season 2 airs Wednesdays on Fox at 9 p.m. EDT.