On Thursday morning, Jussie Smollett was arrested by Chicago Police and prompted a denunciation from President Donald Trump.

By late Thursday afternoon, Smollett was back at work on “Empire,” according to a person involved with the Fox series who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel moves.

The Chicago Police Department’s arrest of the “Empire” actor, and his subsequent return to work, could have been taken straight from an episode of the show, which has had plot lines involving murders, kidnappings, car bombs, comas and memory loss.

Instead, the latest bizarre twist in a case in which Smollett was charged with orchestrating and staging an assault on himself will prompt a series of awkward decisions for Fox, including determining the fate of “Empire,” which, as of a month ago, was a fading but still respectable hit for the network.

The questions Fox must now wrestle with include deciding what to do about Smollett’s character and weighing the potential blowback if they keep him on the show. There are still two episodes left to be shot over the next month for the show’s fifth season, according to the person involved with the show. When Smollett returned to work Thursday he was prepared to film scenes from the season’s second-to-last episode, the person said. It is still an open question whether Fox will use the footage when the episodes ultimately air.

“Empire” has not yet been renewed for a sixth season, so its ultimate fate still hangs in the balance.

For four years, Smollett has played Jamal Lyon, the openly gay middle child of a hip-hop dynasty. Although the show is far from the monster hit it was when it made its debut in 2015, it still draws 7.1 million viewers a week, and Smollett’s character has been a fan favorite. “Empire” is also one of Fox’s highest rated shows and is in 10th place among all network entertainment shows, on par with ABC’s “The Bachelor,” according to Nielsen.

As recently as Wednesday, Fox had praised Smollett as a “consummate professional” and insisted he was not being written off the show. But the network was more muted Thursday.

“We understand the seriousness of this matter and we respect the legal process,” Fox said in a statement after the arrest. “We are evaluating the situation and we are considering our options.”

The Chicago police superintendent, Eddie Johnson, said that Smollett staged the assault last month to create publicity because he was dissatisfied with his salary. In the most recent season of “Empire,” Smollett reportedly earned between $65,000 and $100,000 an episode. “Empire” makes 18 episodes a season, and Smollett had not previously raised objections to Fox regarding his salary, according to three people familiar with the show’s finances.

Smollett is not the biggest star on “Empire” — the show’s leads are Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson — but he remains vital to its success.

“He is the third lead and one of the most beloved characters on the show,” the show’s co-creator, Danny Strong, tweeted last week. “Writing him off the show has NEVER even been discussed.”

The producers of the series could avoid making a final decision about the fate of Smollett’s character for a few months. Fox will have until mid-May to assemble its fall schedule, which gives the network nearly three months to renew or cancel “Empire.” If the show is renewed, executives do not have to pick up options for actors’ contracts until the end of June, and filming would probably begin again in late July.

Complicating matters is the fact that 20th Century Fox Television — the studio that produces “Empire” — is weeks away from being folded into The Walt Disney Co. after Disney’s deal to purchase many of Fox’s entertainment assets finally closes. How Disney feels about Smollett will become a more urgent question in the weeks ahead.

Once the Fox broadcast network is separated from the television studio that produces the series, the future of “Empire” will ultimately be left to Fox’s new chief executive of entertainment, Charlie Collier.

If Smollett is written off the series, it will not be the first time that real-world actions have forced the hand of a TV show’s creative team.

When ABC canceled “Roseanne” last year — after a racist tweet by the show’s star, Roseanne Barr — it made the decision to spin off the series without her. Writers and producers of the spinoff, “The Conners,” had to confront how to remove Barr’s character from the series in a way that wasn’t too sympathetic. Ultimately, the character died from an opioid overdose, and critics have mostly praised “The Conners.”

“Writers are experienced with devices that get rid of a character either for a little while or a long time,” said Martin Kaplan, director of the Norman Lear Center for media and society at the University of Southern California. “Anything from a tragic car accident to ‘he took a walk in the woods and no one knows where he is.'”

Charlie Sheen was fired from the hit CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men” in 2011 following several episodes of bad behavior. Sheen’s character was hit by a train, and Ashton Kutcher joined the cast. The series lasted for four more seasons.

Producers for “House of Cards” fired its star, Kevin Spacey, after he was accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. His character was killed off by a medication overdose, and the show had one final season on Netflix without him. The 1980s sitcom “Valerie” eventually became “The Hogan Family” after the show’s star, Valerie Harper, was fired because of a salary dispute. Her character was killed off in a car accident.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.