Fresh Prince of Bel Air is getting a dramatic reboot - everything we know so far

The new show will be a much darker drama than the 90s sitcom (Photo: IMDb)

A recent trend in television is rebooting old TV shows and giving them a more modern or edgy makeover - like Netflix’s approach to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which was a darker take on the 1996 sitcom, Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

The latest show to be getting a gritty reboot is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which catapulted Will Smith to fame.

Why is Fresh Prince of Bel Air being rebooted?

In 2019, a short fan film called Bel-Air was written and directed by Morgan Cooper which acted as a trailer for a darker and grittier reimagining of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

The trailer sees the character originally played by Smith getting involved in a fight during a game of basketball, and being caught with a gun by the police. His mother sends him to live with his uncle and aunt in Bel Air, Los Angeles, in hopes of giving Will a better shot at life.

The darker version of the sitcom looks to dive deeper into conflicts like class and race struggles, and how Will adapts to his new life. The four minute trailer was posted to YouTube on 10 March 2019, and went viral.

Will Smith himself released a video on 26 April 2019 on his YouTube channel titled How I Really Feel About That BEL-Air Trailer which saw the actor in an interview with Cooper, the director behind the reimagined trailer.

Smith heavily praised the trailer, calling it “an idea that is brilliant” and “The Fresh Prince for the next generation.”