Best News Ever: Marisa Tomei Is Joining 'Empire'

I generally consider myself a pretty upbeat person, but I have to admit that even I've been feeling a bit down ever since Empire Season 1 ended back in May. It's going to be ages before Season 2 premieres and I'm incredibly impatient, so you can imagine how cranky this whole hiatus thing is making me. I keep trawling the internet, looking for spoilers or hints of what we can expect, and I basically just end up looking at gifs of Cookie Lyon being fierce on Tumblr for ages because there's not much news out there. That is, there wasn't much news before today. Turns out, Maria Tomei is joining Empire Season 2 as a recurring character, and I am way too excited about this.

Tomei will be playing a high-powered venture capitalist named Mimi Whiteman who has the misfortune of becoming involved in all the drama currently happening with the Lyon family. Mimi is also described as a "Forbes list billionairess" who loves "hip hop music, social trends, high-end fashion and beautiful women". A lesbian billionaire with an attitude? Say no more! We don't know what particular role she'll play and how big that role will be, but I think it's pretty obvious that Marisa is a total badass and Mimi sounds like one, too. Something tells me we're in for a real treat next season.

What's crazy is that Tomei is only the latest start to sign on to Empire, and far from the first. During Season 1, the likes of Jennifer Hudson, Snoop Dogg, Naomi Campbell, and Courtney love all made appearances, while Season 2 expects big stars like Chris Rock, Alicia Keys, and Lenny Kravitz to stop by. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. And while on many shows, the inclusion of such huge Hollywood names might seem like a ploy for higher ratings, but on Empire, it just seems to make sense and doesn't at all take away from the series' main cast, who are stellar in their own right.

However long Tomei sticks around the Empire offices for, I can't wait to meet Mimi and now I'm even more excited for Season 2 to start. Ugh, why do we have to wait so long?!

Images: Getty Images; Giphy