Will Smith is teaming with Morgan Cooper, the creator behind a viral YouTube video based on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, for Bel-Air, a reimagined drama of the hit NBC comedy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Bel-Air caught Smith's attention when it was released in March of 2019. The new drama has also been in the works over the last year. Cooper will serve as a co-writer, director and co-executive producer. Bel-Air is being shopped to streamers such as Netflix, Peacock and HBO Max, with familiar faces to the original series such as Smith, Quincy Jones, Benny Medina and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air creators Andy and Susan Borowitz returning as executive producers.
Originally airing from 1990 to 1996, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air starred Will Smith, James Avery, Janet Hubert-Whitten and Alfonso Ribeiro, in addition to many others. The show followed a fictionalized version of Smith being uprooted from West Philadelphia to Bel-Air after a fight. The immensely popular sitcom helped launch Smith's acting career, which has consisted of such films as I, Robot, I am Legend and Gemini Man. Smith was working on a reboot of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 2015 through his Overbrook Entertainment, but no such project materialized. Smith was reportedly working on a spinoff of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in 2019.