How 'Bel-Air,' Peacock's New Re-imagining of Will Smith's 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,' Found Its Tone and Its Star
With every IP getting a "re-imagining" these days, it may not come as a surprise that even Will Smith's iconic 90's sitcom, "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," is getting its turn with "Bel-Air," a new series streaming on Peacock in 2022. However, with a show that left such a cultural imprint and made such huge stars out of its cast as "The Fresh Prince," how did the creative team go about tackling this reboot?
In a new exclusive by Entertainment Weekly, Morgan Cooper, a director and executive producer on Peacock's "Bel-Air," revealed how his 2019 fanmade trailer re-imagining what "The Fresh Prince" would be like if set in present times led him to making the official reboot. The trailer's "gritty, realistic vision" caught the eye of Will Smith himself, who called the young, Kansas-City filmmaker in for a meeting one day after the trailer's drop.
When setting out to make the Peacock series, the creative team, including co-showrunners Rasheed Newson and T.J. Brady, struggled over the tone of the show, finally settling on "showing the full spectrum of the Black experience in America, and not saying one is more authentic than the other," as explained by Brady.
However, what was even more pivotal to the success of "Bel-Air" is finding the perfect actor to play the role Will Smith made iconic. The show found its star in new actor and Philadelphia native, Jabari Banks. Fresh out of theater school, Banks, besides having a coincidentally perfect last name, feels born to play Will. A huge fan of the original "The Fresh Prince," the young actor revealed, "The show molded me. And growing up, people always told me I resembled Will and his energy... When I got the call, they said, 'This isn't Will Smith, superstar.' They weren't going for that. And so when they chose me, it took me a couple of weeks to realize that they chose me for me - for what I do."
While there isn't a lot of information out about the upcoming "Bel-Air," we do have an early teaser, and its interesting, introspective tone has got us excited to see how this new series will interpret its timely story of a troubled Philadelphia teen learning to live with his wealthy relatives, the Banks, in California. Are you looking forward to "Bel-Air?"
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