The Lyons are all about scheming, and "Empire" season 2 will surely cater to more of that. When the series returns on Sept. 23 with an episode very ominously titled "The Devils Are Here," Cookie and her boys will take over the company with the help of Anika, who will be all the more determined this season. 

Lucious, who has many enemies waiting to strike, is not completely powerless behind bars, although the control he enjoyed as a free man over the company will be difficult to get hold of from inside the confines of a prison cell. This will be the very thing the cunning team will take advantage of. 

The new season of the mega successful hip-hop drama is shaping up into an all-out warfare, with Andre and Hakeem working hard to stop Jamal from completely acquiring the reins of the mammoth music domain. With the help of Cookie and Anika — who has become more venomous, "harder and more cynical," as executive producer Ilene Chaiken explained via Zap2it  — massive and exciting conflicts are bound to arise. 

As Cookie pushes through with this elaborate scheme to take the helm of the business that Lucious left hanging, the leopard print aficionada will also meet a love interest in a character to be played by Alex Rodriguez.  

Deadline, which already saw the "Empire" season 2 premiere, promises that the show will return in a big way and it will noticeably be fiercer and more glamorous, as one would expect from a series that, as per Fox8, had 17 million people tuning in to the finale of its first season. 

The site says that the premiere will also allow the show to flesh out the characters more.

Also, with a slew of A-list celebrities like Lenny Kravitz, Oprah, Mariah Carey and many more appearing in the upcoming season to help lay out the story, fans will have a lot to look forward to. 

"Empire" season 2 will be comprised of 18 all-new episodes, with the first one airing on Sept. 23.