See Will Smith’s Replacement Arrive In Bel-Air In The Fresh Prince Reboot Trailer
The trailer for the Fresh Prince reboot is here!
This article is more than 2 years old
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot is almost here, and on Monday Will Smith — the star of the original sitcom and an executive producer on the new series — posted a new, full-length trailer to social media, giving us more of the new Will than we’ve seen yet. The trailer release comes the same day new images from the series are made public. We already knew Bel-Air would be a new spin on the Fresh Prince story, but what we’re seeing today makes it clear just how much of a tonal shift we should expect.
While we got a teaser for the series in November, on Monday Will Smith uploaded the first full-length trailer for Bel-Air to his Instagram, introducing us to all of the new actors playing the old characters, but with their stories being told in a drama rather than a sitcom. The basketball court altercation that gets Will sent to Bel-Air seems a lot more serious than the one we were told about in the old Fresh Prince intro, Uncle Phil seems less frustrated with his nephew than he does ready to kick him to the curb, and Carlton almost comes off as downright menacing. You can watch the trailer below.
As noted in the trailer and in Will Smith’s caption, Bel-Air will premiere on Peacock February 13 — Super Bowl Sunday. Bel-Air‘s release format will be similar to most original series released on HBO Max and Amazon Prime. The first three episodes of the Fresh Prince reboot will drop Super Bowl Sunday. There will be a total of 10 episodes in the first season, with episodes 4-10 released one at a time, weekly.
Along with the new trailer, People offered the first look at a series of images from the show. The photos feature most of the principal cast, including Jabari Banks as Will Smith’s old character, Jordan L. Jones as Jazz, Adrian Holmes as Uncle Phil, Olly Sholotan as Carlton, Akira Akbar as Ashley, and more. You can see some of those images below.
The new Will, Jabari Banks, learned he had landed the lead role of Bel-Air from his predecessor. Back in August 2021, Will Smith surprised Banks by informing him via video conference that he had been selected for the part. During the call, Banks told Smith his father read about the Fresh Prince reboot before the actor did, and two months later his agent called him about the audition.
While posting the trailer, Will Smith notes that it’s been “almost three years” since Fresh Prince superfan Morgan Cooper posted his own trailer to YouTube. Cooper’s trailer illustrated his concept of the sitcom with the same basic narrative as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but with a more serious tone. In September 2020, The Hollywood Reporter broke the news Bel-Air had a two season order from Peacock. Morgan Cooper was not forgotten — he’s one of the series’ writers. You can see the realization of his vision when Bel-Air premieres Sunday, February 13.
