Original ‘Fresh Prince’ stars to cameo on ‘Bel-Air’

Fans of the Fresh Prince reboot, Bel-Air, are in for a mini-reunion in the upcoming ninth episode of the first season, as alums Daphne Maxwell Reid and Vernee Watson-Johnson are set to guest star in the Peacock series. 

According to Variety, Reid and Watson-Johnson, who played sisters Viv and Vy — Will’s aunt and mother respectively — will star in the reboot as Helen and Janice, members of the Art Council Board of Trustees. The episode will stream on March 24. 

While Watson-Johnson was a recurring cast member for all six seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Reid came on as a main cast member in the third season, replacing Janet Hubert as the famous Aunt Viv.

In the reimagining of the famous and much-loved sitcom, Bel-Air provides a more gritty and emotional take on Will’s journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the affluent Bel-Air. It chronicles the complicated journey Will faces as he’s been thrown into a world vastly different from what he’s used to. The series was inspired by Morgan Cooper’s famous fan film, Bel-Air, which he uploaded to YouTube as a mock trailer. 

Jabari Banks stars as Will Smith in the dramatized series, with Cassandra Freeman, Jimmy Akingbola, Olly Sholotan, Adrian Holmes, Coco Jones, Simone Joy Jones, Jordan L. Jones and Akira Akbar co-starring. It is produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal Television and has already been given a two-season order by Peacock since September 2020. T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson serve as executive producers and co-showrunners.