'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' cast reunion special gets trailer, premiere date
The "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" reunion now has a premiere date and a trailer.
Will Smith took to social media on Friday, Nov. 13, to reveal the one-time special will air on HBO Max on Thursday, Nov. 19, and to give fans a look at what to expect from when the cast got together again.
"The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" featured Smith playing a fictionalized version of himself named Will, a teen from West Philadelphia sent to live with his rich Uncle Phil (the late James Avery) and Aunt Viv (first played by Janet Hubert and later by Daphne Maxwell Reid) in their Bel-Air mansion with their butler, Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell), and their three children -- Hilary (Karyn Parsons), Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro) and Ashley (Tatyana Ali).
There are many nostalgic moments in the trailer, with the entire cast reminiscing about their time filming the iconic sitcom, which ran for six seasons, airing 148 episodes.
"Nobody ever asked me if I could act," Smith says in the trailer. This prompted a hilarious response from Ribeiro, who -- without missing a beat -- fired back, "And you couldn't."
Everyone was accounted for except for Avery, who died in 2013 at the age of 68. Joining the main cast was DJ Jazzy Jeff, who played Will's friend, Jazz, on the show.
The trailer ends with Smith revealing that he felt it important for Hubert, who played Aunt Viv from seasons 1 through 3 before Reid took over for seasons 4 through 6, be included in the reunion. The two, speaking for the first time in 27 years, have a "candid conversation," per a press release. The two have famously been at odds since Hubert's departure from the show.
"These are the people who made me the man I am today," Smith, 51, wrote in the social media post revealing the trailer and premiere date.
The special was filmed on Sept. 10 -- exactly 30 years after the series originally premiered in 1990 -- on the set of the Banks' home. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" came to an end on May 20, 1996.
