The stars of Empire and Star are joining forces, and The Hollywood Reporter has an exclusive look behind the scenes.
The two Lee Daniels music dramas will air back-to-back on Wednesdays beginning this fall and will kick off their respective season premieres with a two-hour crossover event on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
In advance of the crossover, and their new seasons, the stars of both series have come together to film a special new version and video of Empire’s season one hit, “Beautiful.”
Among those on set for the epic duet include Empire‘s Terrence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Jussie Smollett, Bryshere Y. Gray, Trai Byers and Serayah. The stars of Star on-hand include Queen Latifah, Benjamin Bratt and the ladies of Big Trouble themselves, Jude Demorest, Brittany O’Grady and Ryan Destiny.
In THR‘s exclusive gallery, the two ensembles don’t seem to waste any time getting acquainted, with Smollett and Gray sharing time onscreen with Star‘s central girl group (as does Serayah), Henson and Latifah taking their respective thrones, and Bratt joining the ranks of the Lyon men, specifically Lucious (Howard) and Andre (Byers).
“It’s nice for us to have this overlap of Star and Empire,” Howard says in the behind-the-scenes video below. “For us to give them our time slot means a lot. That’s big brother looking out for little sister.”
Click through the gallery to see more images from the shoot and see the behind-the-scenes video footage below:
Empire and Star return to Fox for their fourth and second seasons, respectively, on Sept. 27.
