A Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot has been in the cards for a while, and the project recently took a major step forward when it was announced that Will Smith was teaming up with director Morgan Cooper to revamp the show as a drama based on a trailer made by Cooper. At the time, the series was looking for a streaming home, and now Will Smith has officially announced where fans can expect to watch the upcoming drama series.
During a video on his YouTube channel, Will Smith announced that the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot has been picked up by Peacock and that the streamer has ordered two full seasons of the show.
Morgan Cooper will serve as director, co-writer and executive the produce the project alongside Chris Collins who boards as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Both joined Will Smith when he officially dropped the news. Will Smith, Terence Carter, James Lassiter, Miguel Melendez, Quincy Jones, Benny Medina, and Andy & Susan Borowitz (the original show's creators) will also serve as executive producers. You can check out the video below:
The series, which is entitled BEL-AIR, will be set in modern-day America and will reuse the show’s classic premise of a young man moving from the streets of West Philadelphia to live with his wealthy relatives in California. Of course, given the shift in genre, the show will have an hour-long format as opposed to the half-hour style that came with the original sitcom.
With this, the producers are hoping to further explore topics that couldn’t be tackled on the '90s series. The original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air did manage to touch on a few societal issues, but one can imagine that BEL-AIR isn’t going to hold back when it comes to social commentary.
Morgan Cooper’s original BEL-AIR trailer took the internet by storm when it first hit the internet last year. The video has garnered over 6 million views since it dropped on YouTube back in March 2019. During the Peacock announcement video, Morgan explained that the idea came to him while he was driving under an overpass. He also discussed the complexity of the characters, giving fans a taste of what they can expect:
There are so many layers to these characters. We’re really going to peel back the layers of these iconic characters and explore this world in a really unforgettable way. It’s a show that’s really going to surprise people in the best way possible.
All of this news comes just as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is about to celebrate its 30th anniversary. In addition to the reboot, the original cast is also set to reunite for an unscripted reunion special that’s set to air on HBO Max.
It’s hard to deny just how well done Morgan Cooper’s original trailer was, and he must’ve had a strong pitch for Peacock to order two seasons. He’s sure to have some interesting stories in mind for this modern-day spin on a TV classic. Be sure to keep it here at CinemaBlend for more updates on the show and for more news from the world of TV and movies.
