In March 2019, Sun Squared Media and Director Morgan Cooper created a fan-made trailer for a dramatic and reimagined reboot of the beloved 90’s sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. With the original star, Will Smith as executive producer, the pitch for the series successfully landed them a two-season order from Peacock.
What We Know:
- Peacock, an on-demand streaming service owned and operated by the television and streaming division of NBCUniversal, reportedly won a bidding war to develop the hour-long series simply titled, Bel-Air. The series would, of course, be based on Cooper’s fan-made trailer concept that took the online world by storm. It currently stands at over 6.3 million views on YouTube alone.
- The project description will be a relatively faithful dramatic retelling of the original story but viewed with a lens of today’s society. The plot will edge towards the original premise of Will’s journey from the streets of West Philadelphia to the polar opposite community of Bel-Air.
- In Cooper’s reimagined vision, he aims to show Bel-Air in a different light by diving into various conflicts, emotions, and biases of what being a Black man is like in America today, while still “delivering the swagger and fun nods to the original show”.
- Smith announced the news in a YouTube video on Monday, calling it an “unprecedented two-season order based on a pitch”.
- “We have just officially closed the deal with Peacock with an unprecedented two-season-order from a pitch,” stated Smith. “I’ve been in this business for thirty years and that does not happen. They ordered two full seasons of Bel-Air based on the quality of the pitch and the work that you guys have done. So I want to say congratulations. I am hyped.”
- Quincy Jones, along with show creators Susan and Andy Borowitz, are onboard for the new series. The development and growing popularity of this project should come to no surprise as Will Smith already had an interest in the concept. He met with Cooper and interviewed him for his YouTube channel a month following the release of the Bel-Air.
Cooper explained the inspiration going into this project, being a fan of the original since the age of 5, he recalled how he came up with the series to Smith. “I remember seeing what you did onscreen so it’s always been a part of me. I remember driving down 71 in Kansas City and I was just thinking about the show,” he said. The idea hit him like a “ton of bricks” one day and knew he had to tell the story.
