We’ve had a bunch of classic comedies rebooted or revived over the past few years, but Bel-Air looks to be the wildest of the bunch. This reimagining of legendary Will Smith vehicle The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air won’t be a multi-cam sitcom like the original but a glossy teen drama that offers a more serious twist on how a kid from Philly’s life got flipped turned upside down when he became the prince of a town called Bel-Air.
The first full trailer for the upcoming Peacock original series just dropped this Monday morning (see above), revealing our best look yet at what it has to offer. Executive produced Smith himself, Jabari Banks stars as Will, who we see getting to grips with both the positives and negatives of his new life in this promo. We’re also introduced to some very different versions of familiar characters, like Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes), Aunt Viv (Cassandra Freeman), cousin Carlton (Olly Sholotan), and “house manager” Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola).
The bold reinvention of the OG show goes as far as giving Will a much darker backstory. As anyone who’s got the lyrics to the opening theme memorized knows, Smith’s Will was shipped off to Bel-Air after his “mom got scared” because he got in “one little fight.” In the new Bel-Air, it looks like Will got himself caught up in some serious business that landed him in trouble with the police and, as Geoffrey reveals in the trailer, left “some bad man from Philly” wanting to deal with him.
Bel-Air is set to premiere on Super Bowl Sunday, aka Feb. 13, on Peacock with its first three episodes, with subsequent episodes airing weekly. The streaming service clearly has big hopes for this one, as a second season has already been ordered. But do audiences really want a Riverdale-esque retelling of their favorite nostalgic sitcom? We’ll find out next month.
