'Bel-Air' Turns 'The Fresh Prince' Into a Gritty Drama Series and It's Just Dropped Its Full Trailer
The Will Smith-starring 90s sitcom has been given a reboot — and it's hitting streaming in February.
Now, this is a story all about how a 90s sitcom favourite got flipped-turned upside down. And we'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, to tell you how the show that gave Will Smith his big acting break became a new gritty reboot called Bel-Air.
Yes, just by reading that last paragraph, you now have the theme tune to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air stuck in your head. But let's be honest: if you've ever watched an episode of the 1990–96 series, even if it was decades back, you've had the ridiculously catchy song immersed in your brain ever since.
Whether that track will pop up in Bel-Air is yet to be seen — but the show itself will drop on Monday, February 14. In Australia, Stan will be streaming the series, which turns Smith's earliest acting claim to fame into a drama, updates it to modern-day America, but otherwise sticks to the same basic premise.
Once again, a West Philadelphia-born and -raised teenager by the name of Will Smith — this time played by first-timer Jabari Banks — will make the move to the titular Los Angeles neighbourhood. Lavish gated mansions and disparate worlds colliding awaits, as do the Banks family, with Adrian Holmes (Arrow) as Will's uncle Phillip, Cassandra Freeman (The Last OG) as his aunt Vivian, and Olly Sholotan (Run Hide Fight), Coco Jones (Vampires vs the Bronx) and Akira Akbar (Captain Marvel) as his cousins Carlton, Hilary and Ashley. Also featuring: Will's pal Jazz, this time played by Jordan L Jones (Rel).
As that storyline and character list shows — and the just-dropped trailer for Bel-Air, too — there's plenty that's familiar about the series, which has been developed by the IRL Smith with filmmaker Morgan Cooper based on the latter's 2019 short fan film of the same name. But the tone firmly takes a swerve to the serious, so don't expect to be giggling along with the latest classic series to resurface after years (see also: Gossip Girl, Saved by the Bell, Sex and the City sequel series And Just Like That..., just to name a few).
Check out the Bel-Air trailer below:
Bel-Air will start streaming in Australia on Monday, February 14 via Stan.
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