It has been confirmed that a reboot of the hit comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is in the works, which is of course exciting news. What may come as a bit of a surprise is the fact that unlike the original, this reboot will be a drama. Interesting choice, right? My thoughts exactly.
Now they are currently shopping this around to networks and streaming platforms hoping to get picked up, most notably HBO Max, and the series will be based on Morgan Cooper’s concept trailer which went viral after it was posted last year, re-imagining the NBC comedy series as a hard-hitting drama. The trailer reached over 5 million viewers, and that was just on YouTube. Cooper is attached to co-write and direct the series, and will also serve as co-executive producer. Will Smith will also serve as an executive producer.
Now unless you have been living under a rock since the early 90’s, you know that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air ran for 6 season (1990 - 1996) consisting of nearly 150 episodes, and helped to launch a behemoth of a film career for actor Will Smith. The show is hilarious and a comedy through and through, but it does touch on some serious issues during its 6-year run as many sitcoms often do.
Now I am fully on board with the rebooting of a series as popular as this, if done right of course, but the decision to make this a drama is interesting to me, to say the least. Don’t we all have enough drama in our lives already?! We will keep you posted on any new developments on this.
Check out the trailer the new series will be based on below and let us know your thoughts in the comments.