Empire: Did You Catch These Subtle Hints That Chris Rock's Character Is a Cannibal?

Chris Rock made his Empire debut on the season premiere as an old associate of Lucious and Cookie's, Frank Gathers. The hardened criminal is known for his brutal business tactics, which the premiere definitely hammers home. (Severed head in a box, anyone?) What you may not have caught, however, is that his character was originally envisioned as a cannibal. The Hollywood Reporter included the behind-the-scenes detail in a recent story about the show:

"According to multiple insiders, Fox brass shot down an early idea to have Chris Rock's character, who's in jail with Lucious, be a cannibal in the first episode of the season. But Daniels, who directed the season opener, is said to have ignored the mandate and shot the Rock story as initially envisioned, including one particularly grotesque scene featuring the actor with a plate of human body parts before him. Rock agreed to return to the series' Chicago set for reshoots this summer, where sources say the cannibal plotline was scaled back to the point of barely detectable at the network's insistence."

"Barely detectable," unless you know what to look for. There are three scenes on the premiere that hint at this backstory, including the actual sequence detailed above. Here they are:

• When Frank is talking to Jermel: When Frank first sidles up to Cookie's cousin Jermel, the inmate who gunned down his friend, he ends the conversation by saying, "I'm hungry. You hungry?" This line is foreshadowing his penchant for eating his victims.
• When Frank is eating his meal in front of Jermel: That meal is Jermel! We don't explicitly see that any of his body parts are gone, but he's pretty beat up. In Daniels' earlier version, perhaps there could have been a missing finger or two.
• When Cookie calls him Hannibal: After the head is sent to Cookie and she goes to see Lucious in prison, she mentions Frank, referring to him as "that skinny Hannibal." Can't get any clearer that that! The dude eats people.