Empire is the show that took everyone by surprise last season. Besides the incredible music audiences hear every week, the stories keep you coming back for more. Seriously, I cannot believe some of the things I’ve seen every week on Empire. Record mogul Lucious Lyon (Terrence Howard) actually proposed to re-marry his ex and slept with his lover/assistant the same night. He confessed to sleeping with his son’s girlfriend and fathering her child. Cookie (Taraji P. Henson) started a fist fight with said lover/assistant and tried to smother Luscious in his sleep with a pillow. And that’s when the family is in a good mood!

Season two can’t come soon enough, but until then, Taraji P. Henson, creator Lee Daniels and producer Ilene Chaiken gave a panel for the Television Critics Association. Here are five things we learned about Empire at the TCA summer press tour. Empire returns Wednesday, September 23 at 9 on Fox.

Empire Is Getting A Spinoff

That was fast. After the first year of Empire, Fox has green lit another music drama from Lee Daniels, Star, but that’s not even the spinoff we’re talking about. In addition to Star, Daniels thinks we’ll eventually see more shows in the same world as Empire, possibly on generation before Lucious and Cookie.

“I think there is going to be a spinoff from Empire without question,” Daniels said. “I think there’s so much ripe story. We’ve talked about it in the room already, about Cookie’s family, what makes her her, Lucious’s family, what makes them them. That, in itself, is fascinating to me.”

Season 2 Will Keep It Real

Empire got a lot of attention for the most outrageous parts: Cookie and Boo Boo Kitty (Grace Gealey) fighting, Cookie trying to smother Lucious with a pillow, Jamal (Jussie Smollett) coming out to Lucious in a song. It would be tempting to try to top themselves, but Empire won’t sacrifice story for headlines.

“All we want to do is continue to do Empire, which is to tell the truth,” Daniels said. “Which is to tell the story of this family, this black family, that is relatable to all Americans of all colors, and the music, and in the most honest way that we can. You can only just be you and that’s what we all try to do, is be ourselves.”

Don’t worry, the creators of Empire still like to shock us, so they won’t stop. “Once you go to work you just think about the stories you’re telling,” Chaiken added. “We want to continue to make the audience gasp and laugh and scream and cry, but all of that is driven by wanting to go on telling these stories. We open up new doors and I definitely go to Lee and say, ‘What do you want to talk about? How are we going to talk about it? What do we want to explore that we haven’t explored and how can we continue to shatter conventions and open doors and windows and eyes and hearts?”

Celebrity Cameos Won’t Overpower the Lyons

Season one already landed Jennifer Hudson, Raven-Symone and Courtney Love for guest stars. Now that it’s a huge hit, even more stars want to appear on the show. They’ve already confirmed Mariah Carey, but they don’t know when she’ll be available.

“I don’t really know the particulars,” Daniels said. “She’s a yes.”

Daniels has also said he wanted Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey, but getting serious he told the TCA he would never let the cameo take away from the Lyon family.

“When you start a television show, and I was new to this, you think that you get your friends together and everything,” Daniels said. “I find that the more celebrities, the more stars I put on this show, the more it takes away from the family. The family, the family, the family is the most important thing. So if we can bedazzle you with a little Denzel, a little Oprah, whatever, that’s okay, but I think that I got to stick to family. The family is what the story is about.”

It Hasn’t Gone To Their Heads

Taraji P. Henson and Terrence Howard are movie stars, and Daniels is an Oscar nominated filmmaker. Still Empire is a phenomenon and has made stars out of Bryshere Y. Gray, Jussie Smollett and Trai Byers. Henson is doing her part to make sure everyone stays grounded and committed to making a good show.

“Especially with my boys, my babies, they are so sweet,” Henson said. “Trai is cool. He seems more reserved and calm and more mature. Not to say that the other two aren’t, but they’re younger. I just had a conversation with Yazz the other day about saving his money, not believing your own hype and I’m constantly checking in with him. When you’re on that set, that set life kind of bleeds into your life. Because we film in Chicago. we have become a family. I don’t know anybody in Chicago. So they’re constantly over at my house. I cook for them. They’re really like my sons. So I’m constantly checking in on them, making sure their head is right and they’re not getting lost in this thing called Hollywood.”

Doing More Episodes Won’t Ruin Empire

We only got 13 hours of Empire for the first season. We’ll be getting 18 for season two, but don’t worry about too much of a good thing. They found a way to give us more and keep the quality high.

“It was terrifying at first, but Fox gave us this really great schedule and plan for actually unveiling the show,” Chaiken said. “Two pods, ten episodes and eight, with a hiatus in between. Nothing is different. We’re able to devote as much time and attention to each episode as we did in the first season. We’ll get a little bit of a break in between to catch our breath, writers and actors. The show will be every bit as good. We’re not feeling any sense of running out of story. We have all of the energy that we had in the first season to make every episode great.”