Will Smith reached out to NBC via Twitter and suggested filming a new episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air to honor its recently deceased star James Avery...or so we thought.

The post turned out to be fake and sent from an account that did not belong to the actor, though it was still cited by Hollywood Life and other publications.

In a direct message to NBC, which E! News took a screengrab of, Smith was thought to have tweeted, "I was thinking that we get together and film one more episode of Fresh Prince of Bel Air in honor of Uncle Phil." NBC replied, "Hello Will, nice hearing from you again, I'll forward the idea to corporate right now."

The screengrab then showed the network saying, "Alright, they said they need proof of a viewership, so if you can somehow show that 300,000+ people would watch, it's a go. Retweets, maybe?"

The fake account associated with the actor wrote back, "Sounds good. I'll send out a tweet saying that 300,000+ retweets are needed for an honorary Uncle Phil episode right now...R.I.P. Uncle Phil. All you real Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans out there...DON'T STOP #RETWEETING THIS."

The message was later discovered to stem from a fake Will Smith Twitter account. The actor in fact does not use Twitter.

Avery, who played Uncle Phil on the classic sitcom, died Dec. 31 at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering complications from open-heart surgery. He was 65.

Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, reported the news of Avery's death on her Facebook account.

"Happy New Year everyone! I was hoping to start the new year differently but we have lost yet another friend," she wrote. "James Avery who we all lovingly know as Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince has passed. Our condolences to aunt Florence (his mother), Miss Barbara (his wife) and all those who loved him. Rest in peace James."

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