Since news came out in May that Jason Mitchell was fired from Showtime’s The Chi, the open question has been: What will happen to the character he plays on the show, Brandon Johnson?
During a panel discussion at the Television Critics Association summer press tour on Friday (Aug. 2), Showtime’s Co-Presidents of Entertainment, Gary Levine and Jana Winograde, addressed the elephant in the room: “There is a lot of great life in The Chi, and there’s also death in The Chi. That’s how we’ll be dealing with it,” said Levine. In her comments, Winograde discussed Showtime’s role in the decision-making, “We are not the lead studio, the lead studio is Fox, but even when we are not lead studio we tend to be involved and were made aware of the allegations. [Fox 21] conducted a thorough investigation. After that investigation, we all made the decision together that it was appropriate at that time to give him some training and guidance on appropriate behavior on set.”
According to The Grio, Mitchell addressed his firing on Instagram. Posting, “I think it’s time to make a statement. To everyone commenting without any knowledge of what’s going please stop…and to all my supporters I appreciate you all and I’m sorry I will no longer be in [The Chi]..but don’t believe what you read in the media…”
Mitchell was fired from The Chi; dropped from other projects; his management and agency dumped him after accusations of sexual misconduct on-set.
The Chi recently wrapped season 2. It’s not clear when season 3 will premiere.
