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Will Smith announces Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot on Peacock

The streaming service has approved two full seasons of the show.

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Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is being rebooted as a modern-day drama.

 NBC

A Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot is officially happening, Will Smith has confirmed. Bel-Air is getting two seasons on new streaming service Peacock, Smith said in a YouTube video Tuesday. The reboot stemmed from a fan-made trailer showing a more realistic and dramatic version of the characters in modern times, which gained the attention of Smith in 2019. Now, it's becoming a reality.

"We have just officially closed the deal with Peacock with an unprecedented two-season order from a pitch," Smith said in the video. "What really clicked in my mind when I saw the trailer that Morgan did [was] the concepts in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reimagined as a drama. A real kid from West Philadelphia modern day, a Black family in Bel-Air, the Carlton character, a Black young Republican ... the heat that would be stirred up by these characters."

Read more: Every streaming service ranked: Disney Plus vs. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peacock, HBO Max and Hulu

Smith also said he wants to see the Hilary Banks character in the world of social media and Instagram, Uncle Phil as a Black judge with young Black kids coming before him and Aunt Viv reentering the workforce after raising her family.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air first aired 30 years ago, in 1990. You can watch the gritty, fan-made trailer by Sun Squared Media on YouTube.

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