A ‘Fresh Prince’ Reboot Is Coming, And It Will Be With a Dramatic Twist

Peacock, Netflix, and HBO Max are all currently bidding for the streaming rights to the project.

It wasn’t all fun and games for the Fresh Prince during his stay with Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv in Bel-Air. Will’s dad showed up only to leave him again. An episode highlighted racial discrimination and disparity when Will and Carlton ended up in jail. Heck, Will even got shot, and Carlton ended up buying a gun—dramatic stuff went down. Now, the real Will Smith is preparing a dramatic reboot of his beloved 1990s-era show, and this definitely isn’t the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air we know and love.

Smith caught wind of a 2019 viral fanmade movie trailer for a fictional flick called Bel-Air by director Morgan Cooper, and he wanted to bring the idea to fruition. Now, Smith and Cooper have teamed up and are bringing the ultra-dramatic Bel-Air to the small screen.

“Ever wonder what The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air might look like if it suddenly returned to the airwaves in 2019?” the trailer description on the Blockbuster GLOBAL YouTube channel reads. “Well, given Hollywood’s current penchant for giving everything a ‘dark’ and ‘gritty’ backstory, it would probably look quite a bit like this superbly made fan film by director Morgan Cooper.”

It continues, “Simply titled Bel-Air, it gives Will Smith’s young ‘Will’ a considerably more dire origin story while keeping all of the major Fresh Prince beats intact.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cooper will write, direct, and co-executive produce the series with original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air producers Smith, Quincy Jones, and Benny Medina, as well as creators Andy and Susan Borowitz, also executive producing.

Peacock, Netflix, and HBO Max are all currently bidding for the streaming rights to the project.