Morgan Cooper’s viral YouTube trailer must have taken the world by storm because it has caught all the right attention for the time being. Will Smith, Benny Medina, and Quincy Jones have come together again to pitch the idea to many streaming platforms like Netflix, Peacock, HBO Max, and some say even Hulu. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is a slice of nostalgia and childhood for many of us. Will a reboot of the series be worth it or is it just milking a dead cow? The NBC Comedy is about to hit the streets again. The Fresh prince is coming back folks. Whether you would want it or not is a different question!
The entire tale began with a superbly made and edited YouTube trailer that went viral a while ago. The creator of the video Morgan Cooper then got a call from Will Smith who wanted to partner up with Cooper to make the latter’s dream a reality. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reboot will be a re-imagined piece of work. It will turn the former cult-classic NBC Comedy series into a dark drama. The original series featured Will Smith as a street smart and cocky kid who moved from West Philadelphia (born and raised…come on, we had to do it at least once!) to Tony, Los Angeles where he has all kinds of comic adventures and exploits.
The reboot of the comedy series will end up giving it a dark and dramatic tone. The jury is still out on whether it will have any elements of comedy the original series was known for. The reboot will have many new age elements like classism, racism, and the struggles of people of color in the American Society where African-Americans are known to be victims of institutionalized racism. The show will have humor though. It is Fresh Prince we are talking about for crying out loud! But will the re-imagined version be enough to sooth the fans? Considering the reboot will be touching upon several sensitive topics, the new Fresh Prince will probably polarize its audience.
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What is even more perplexing is that the pre-production for the reboot was in the works since a year. Will Smith may have been roped in now but Morgan Cooper was already hard on his heels to turn this thing into a reality. The new Bel-Air YouTube clip was posted on March 2019. It quickly got a lot of steam and a lot of people turned heads. Morgan Cooper, just like all of us, is a major fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He was the one who came up with the idea for the video clip and directed it as well. After it became a sleeper hit and went viral, Will Smith approached him to turn it into a drama.
Morgan Cooper will be now writing the script for the Fresh Prince reboot direct the series, as well as be credited as one of the Executive Producers of the Show.
The Fresh Prince Reboot will have to do a lot of research on finding the niche audience it could appeal to as a viewer base. They are already hard at work trying to find the right set and tone for the series. The series is being bid upon like crazy. The reboot will sell its rights to a streaming platform. So it will be available to OTT services for the taking. Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal Studios are co-producing the show as of now. The numbers of bidders that have come forth to show interest as a future streaming partner are Netflix, Peacock, and HBO Max. Whether Hulu is also in on the game is still up for debate. Among all the bidders, HBO Max has the most chances for winning the bid since they already are the actual streaming partners for the original series.
The series will see a lot of faces returning from the original show. Benny Medina, Quincy Jones, and Smith will be returning as series producers for the reboot. Andy and Susan Borowitz, the creators of the original show, will be coming back as Executive Producers. Reports are also coming in that Chris Collins of The Wire, Sons of Anarchy, and Crash fame has also been roped in to team up with Morgan Cooper and co-write the script for the series.
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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air had its original run from the year of 1990 to 1996. Airing on NBC, it was produced by Quincy Jones and supported by Warner Brothers Television. What became of Universal Television was also once massively involved in producing the series back then. Ever since the last episode of the show aired, Will Smith has made sure he is in regular touch with the show’s cast members. Along with Will Smith, James Avery, Alfonso Ribeiro, Tatyana M Ali, Joseph Marcell, Karyn Parson, and Daphne Maxwell-Reid were also part of the show. All the original cast members recently reunited and had a grand social media gathering on Snapchat.
The reason a reboot is being considered is because they have recently proven to be great vehicles to rake in loyal viewers. Shows like The Twilight Zone, Lost in Space, and Queer Eye have massive demand across all ages and circles. Maybe the Fresh prince reboot is eyeing a similar level of viewership. There is obviously the advantage of little to no marketing efforts and negligible advertising costs. The reboots only work if people from the original series are part of the re-invention. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air has it covered.
But what is getting us a little jumpy is the tone and direction the reboot will be going to partake in. While we know that the show runners will have only the best and brightest of ideas in mind, the topics are still a little sensitive. We hope they do not end up turning this entire series into a bandwagon of political correctness like Disney does with its movies nowadays. There are several big names associated with the current project. There is nothing to worry about. But we still can’t help but wonder – is this reboot really necessary??
