Yahoo Finance Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot delayed after changing showrunners
The hotly-anticipated Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot has been delayed yet again after another showrunner has dropped out of the series.
After original showrunner Chris Collins, who has previously worked on The Wire and Sons of Anarchy, left the show in December, Diane Houston took his place. But Houston, famed for her work on Empire, has now also left the series, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
Writers TJ Brady and Rasheed Newson, who were originally brought onto the show under Houston, will now take over the role. They will work alongside executive producer Malcolm Spellman, who was the head writer for Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Disney+.
While the project will be Brady and Newson's first showrunning role, the pair previously worked together on FX's Lie to Me, Lifetime's Army Wives and USA's Shooter.
Related: The Fresh Prince's Alfonso Ribeiro says reboot is "a totally different show"
The series was initially planned for release this year, but currently it hasn’t even started casting. It’s now expected to drop sometime in 2022.
Houston and Collins reportedly left the series due to creative differences with the network's vision for the series. According to THR, the producers are all still staying on the team, including star of the original series Will Smith, writers of the original series Andy and Susan Borowitz, and the original series' executive producers Quincy Jones and Benny Medina.
The reboot was set in motion in March 2019, when filmmaker Morgan Cooper created a viral trailer for his own reimagining of the sitcom as a gritty drama titled Bel-Air. Cooper's trailer scored him a position as co-writer, director and executive producer on the new reboot.
Related: Will Smith is rebooting Fresh Prince of Bel-Air with a twist
The series has already been picked up for two seasons by NBCUniversal’s streaming service Peacock. At the time, Smith commented: "I've been in this business for 30 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... I am hyped."
Alfonso Ribeiro recently told E! News the new series will be a far cry from the original 1990s show: "I like to call it a reimagining… A reboot would be taking the actual show and characters and bringing it back. This is a totally different show.
"It's not even based on the show. It's based on the theme song. It's a completely different thing. It's drama. It's not comedy.”
The original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.
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