Jason Mitchell's How and Why Brandon Died

If you were a casual fan of the South Side Chicago drama series The Chi, which premiered in 2018, you were a little confused when main character Brandon Johnson (Jason Mitchell) was suddenly axed from the show. Season 2 ended with the character in a rough, complicated place, leaving fans wondering how he'll handle all the chaos during the break between seasons. The season 3 opener revealed that he won't make it at all. He died off-screen between seasons — or, as “The Simpsons” fans say, Brandon He died on the way back to his home planet.

This is not unlike what happened in the sixth and final season of “House of Cards” with Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey). it was revealed that he died off-screeneven though viewers knew that wasn't what the writers had planned for him by the time they finished season 5. It's always awkward when real-life circumstances disrupt a fictional world, and “The Chi” was no exception. If you want to know why Brandon died so suddenly, you'll first have to figure out what happened to actor Jason Mitchell…

It's hard to know exactly What's happened is that a lot of the people involved seem to have signed NDAs or otherwise aren't very comfortable giving away too much detail. Most notably, Mitchell was allegedly responsible for many behind-the-scenes scandals, particularly involving co-star Tiffany Boone. Boone played Jerrika, Brandon's girlfriend, but was asked to leave the show due to repeated harassment by Mitchell. Showrunner Ayanna Floyd Davis talked about the situation In 2019:

“I discussed Tiffany's allegations with the studio [human resources] department and set up HR presentations for writers, cast and crew. After all, everyone was well aware of Jason's behavior and his multiple HR jobs, including Lena [Waithe]creator and executive producer of the show, he's very involved at the studio and network level … As a showrunner, I did my best to deal with his behavior by repeatedly talking to the studio's HR department and instructing one. The actress called HR herself and I had to report her to HR before I became the target of her anger and inappropriateness.”

In May 2019, Johnson was officially fired from the series. Creator Lena Waithe also shed some light on the decision in an interview the breakfast club podcastAfter season 1, he explained how he heard about Mitchell's disturbing behavior, confronted him, and to no avail. “I called him and we had a really real conversation,” he said. “”You have to respect any woman on set. You have to respect everyone… Don't treat any woman the way you treat me.”

In the first two seasons, Brandon seemed to be on the upswing: slowly but surely achieving his dream of becoming a chef, even as South Side life constantly got in the way. He starts a food truck in “The Chi” season 1 and quickly becomes one of the show's most sympathetic, moral characters, serving as a much-needed mentor to younger characters like Kevin (Alex Hibbert). As season 2 progresses, she draws the uneasy attention of Otis “Douda” Perry (Curtiss Cooke), a con artist soon to be the mayor of Chicago. Douda is gradually revealed to be the Worst, and at the end of season 2, Brandon is arrested and Jerrika dumps him. He ends the season deciding to talk to the police and confront Douda, but we never get to see that play out.

How would this have been resolved if Mitchell's alleged behind-the-scenes misconduct hadn't cut the story? Many fans thought Brandon would redeem himself in “The Chi” season 3, when he and the detective who arrested him (Alice Toussaint, played by Crystal Dickinson) would team up to take down Douda. Maybe Brandon would even win Jerrika back, stay out of jail, and eventually achieve most of his restaurant dreams.

Fans have also speculated that the season 5 storyline where Emmett (Jacob Latimore) works at a restaurant with Douda would likely have gone to Brandon had the character not been written out. Emmett in general, with his constant relationship drama and dreams of self-improvement, seems like he's been given plenty of material to give to Brandon in later seasons.

“The Chi” Season 3 opens with Brandon giving a eulogy at his mother Laverne's (Sonja Sohn) funeral, mourning her death and blaming Chicago's problems for alienating him. “I should never have raised them in a town that would rather see their likenesses painted on a brick wall than see them graduate from college. . . . They were my everything and this town took them from me.” It's a continuation of the show's many critiques of systemic problems in the city, only this time it rings hollow because we know it's not Chicago's fault that she's crying over here; It's by Jason Mitchell.

The rest of season 3 diverges far from Brandon's storyline. The once important character of Alice Toussaint has been drastically reduced, as has any mention of the feds taking Douda down. The show isn't interested in explaining how and why Brandon died, though it finally does in the season 4 storyline where Laverne returns to Chicago and shoots Douda. (Unfortunately, he lives, but at least we know for sure that he killed Brandon.) The whole thing was kind of a mess. The first seasons were often compared “The Wire” for its scope and stylebut by season 3, the show had killed its chances of being considered in the same league.

The general fan consensus is that the first two seasons were some of the best The Chi had to offer, and things started to fall apart a bit after Brandon was kicked off the show. Fans have often wondered if reintroducing Brandon would have been a smarter choice, or if they could have found a way to end his arc a little more gracefully.

In 2019, Jason Mitchell was fired from The Chi, as well as from the production of the film. drama film “Desperados” and was fired by his talent agency. Mitchell's firing from “The Chi” wasn't quite the end of his career—he's gone on to star in some lesser-known low-budget films since then—but it certainly was the end of his being an up-and-coming Hollywood actor. whose movies It would receive rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.

That same year, Mitchell denied the allegations against him and was fired from The Chi. one Interview with the Breakfast Club podcastshe said, “I really hate to say this because I'm all for Me Too… I have two beautiful daughters that I want to be in the business, so they're all for Me Too. But I think in this situation, Ayanna [Floyd Davis] tried to use it as a really, really ugly weapon.”

In May 2020, he was arrested in Mississippi on multiple felony drug and gun charges. As a deadline informed at the time, “Mitchell was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of a weapon by two felons. During a traffic stop, Mitchell was found to have an AK-47 assault rifle, a Glock handgun and two pounds of marijuana, as well as records of the drug ecstasy.”

Mitchell calls this situation a 2023 interviews a few years later. “I was on my way to New Orleans to see my family … and I just jumped in the wrong car with the wrong people,” he said. “It wasn't like that, you know what I mean? … All those charges were dropped, they were completely dismissed, I'm not dealing with it anymore, but at the time it was just kind of unfortunate and embarrassing. deal with.”