There will not be any room for Jason Mitchell to return for “The Chi” in Season 3 of the Showtime drama.
Gary Levine, Showtime’s co-president of entertainment, said Friday that Mitchell’s character on the series will be killed off in the new season.
“There is a lot of great life in ‘The Chi’ and there’s also death in ‘The Chi’ and that’s how we’ll be dealing with it,” Levine said during the Television Critics Association summer press tour Friday.
It was revealed in May that Mitchell had been fired from the series due to allegations of harassment from showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis and co-star Tiffany Boone. It was subsequently revealed that Mitchell had engaged in similar behavior on the set of the Netflix film “Desperados,” leading to his dimissal from that project as well.
Mitchell had been in high demand since his breakout role in the 2015 film “Straight Outta Compton,” in which he played NWA member Eazy-E. Since then, Mitchell has starred in films such as “Mudbound,” “Kong: Skull Island,” and “Detroit.” He plays a leading role on “The Chi,” which was created by Lena Waithe.
In an interview after Mitchell’s firing, Waithe said she first became aware of the allegations against Mitchell at the conclusion of “The Chi’s” first season. She said that there was sexual harassment training on set and that she called Mitchell directly to confront him. She then said that the involved parties handled the situation through HR and that all agreed to return for Season 2, but Mitchell’s behavior continued.