Bel-Air: Will Smith Shares First Trailer for Dramatic Reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

While The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is widely considered a comedy series, filmmaker Morgan Cooper back in 2019 pitched the idea that the premise of a young kid from Philly moving to the upper class Bel-Air was actually grounds for a serious drama. Now his short film has been turned into an actual series, and Will Smith himself just shared the first trailer.

Smith also had this to say about the upcoming reboot:

“3 years ago, my guy Morgan Cooper uploaded his fan trailer to YouTube, showing how he envisioned the Fresh Prince as a drama. Now, here is the first full look at his retelling of the story that’s always been so close to my heart.”

And just in case you haven’t seen Cooper’s short film, you can watch it here:

You’ll notice that there are a lot of things that have been significantly changed for the show. For one, the actor they cast as Will (Jabari Banks) looks pretty different from Smith (the short film’s Jerry Madison actually looks closer). They also changed the character of Carlton, whereas he was notoriously dorky, it looks like the show made him a lot more popular and confident when it came to his peers.

While some may scoff at an edgy reboot of Fresh Prince, this route actually has a lot to say about the original show; which looked fun on the surface, but actually had a lot to say about the class divide and social climate of the US.

Catch Bel-Air when it premieres on Peacock on Feb. 13.