‘Bel-Air’ Premiere Date: When and How to Watch Will Smith’s ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ Reboot
Will Smith fans have been following the development of his Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot. Smith liked Morgan Cooper’s short film imagining the classic sitcom as a drama. So he’s producing it as a real show. Smith shared the video of himself telling Jabari Banks the news he’d be playing Will, and even narrates the trailer. Now, Peacock has announced the Bel-Air premiere date.
Will Smith’s ‘Fresh Prince’ reboot ‘Bel-Air’ premieres Super Bowl Sunday
Bel-Air will premiere Feb. 13 after the Super Bowl. That’s a big date to launch a new show. Networks have used the post-Super Bowl spot to launch hit series from The Wonder Years to Queen Latifah’s The Equalizer. Existing shows also use the Super Bowl spot. Friends had a cameopalooza episode in 1996.
Alias, The Simpsons, House and This Is Us also aired post-Super Bowl, with The Simpsons revealing Comic Book Guy’s real name and This Is Us showing how Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) died. It doesn’t always work. Just ask the short-lived 24: Legacy or shows you’ve never even heard of like MacGruder and Loud.
The Super Bowl begins at 1 p.m. ET on NBC, Peacock and Telemundo. So if you get Peacock, you can just watch the game on the streaming service and it’ll roll into the new Fresh Prince of Bel-Air drama after.
‘Bel Air’ premieres weekly on Peacock
Although Peacock is a streaming service, they plan to roll out Bel-Air weekly. This isn’t unusual for Peacock. Although series like Saved By the Bell and MacGruber drop all at once, they have also aired shows like Paris in Love and The Lost Symbol weekly. So, get ready Feb. 20, Feb. 27, March 6. Sundays are about to get serious.
The new ‘Bel-Air’ cast
Banks will play Will and he still moves to Bel-Air to live with his aunt, uncle and cousins. Adrian Holmes will play Uncle Phil. Cassandra Freeman will play Aunt Viv and hopefully remain the only Aunt Viv this time. Olly Sholotan will play cousin Carlton. Coco Jones will play Hilary, Akira Akbar will play Ashley, Jimmy Akingnbola will play butler Geoffrey and Jordan L. Jones will play Jazz.
Lisa has already been cast, too. Simone Joy Jones will play Lisa. On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will didn’t meet Lisa (Nia Long) until Season 5.
Cooper teamed up with showrunners T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson to bring Bel-Air to Peacock. Brady and Newson released a statement about how Bel-Air would update The Fresh Prince’s clash of streetwise and wealth for 2022.
“It’s been incredible to bring these iconic characters to life when you tap them into the cultural pulse of our time,” Brady and Newson wrote. “The series was the fabric of so many of our upbringings, tied to memories and the joy of seeing ourselves represented on TV so it is important to us to pay respect to its legacy.”
