The Fresh Prince might be returning to television screens. 360aproko has learned that a project titled Bel-Air, an hourlong series based on Morgan Cooper’s film that reenvisions The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a drama, is currently being pitched to streamers.
Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal TV will serve as the studios. Cooper will direct and co-executive produce the potential series, which he is co-writing with Chris Collins. Collins is an executive producer and showrunner.
In 2019, Cooper reimagined the ’90s sitcom as a “dark” and “gritty” story. Bel-Air gave Smith’s Will a more troubled origin story about the teen who was sent to the glitzy and glamorous city from West Philadelphia.
Back in 2017, Smith admitted during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show that he couldn’t “bear” to watch the comedy that made him famous.
“It was my very first role, and I was very, very focused on being successful, so I learned the whole script and everyone else’s lines,” he explained. “If you watch the first four or five episodes, you can see I’m mouthing other people’s lines. It’s terrible and I can’t bear to watch it.”
In May of this year, the actor reunited with Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Maxwell Reid, Joseph Marcell and DJ Jazzy Jeff to reminisce about their time on the show, which aired from 1990 to 1996. During the reunion, the cast also paid tribute to James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on the series, who died in 2013.
