The original Aunt Viv is back in Bel-Air!<\/p>\n
Janet Hubert<\/a> is heading to a familiar zip code as a guest star in the\u00a0fourth and final season<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Bel-Air<\/a>, Peacock’s modern-day reimagining of\u00a0The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air<\/a>, the streamer announced Tuesday. It’s an full-circle moment for the actress who originated the role of Will’s Aunt Vivian on the original sitcom.\n<\/p>\n Hubert will play a wise woman who meets Hilary (Coco Jones) and becomes instrumental to the Banks family.\n<\/p>\n Actress Caroline Chikezie (Power Book II: Ghost) will also guest-star in the final season as Dominique Warren, the leader of Geoffrey’s (Jimmy Akingbola) former London gang who’s also like a sister to him.<\/p>\n Caroline Chikezie.<\/p>\n J. Countess\/Getty<\/p>\n As Fresh Prince fans are intimately aware of, Hubert played Aunt Viv until she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid in season 4. The move was highly controversial and left a bitter taste in Hubert’s mouth, which led to her publicly criticizing star Will Smith<\/a> and the show numerous times throughout the years.\n<\/p>\n Things were rocky between Hubert and Smith for decades; the actress slammed the Oscar and Grammy winner<\/a> for being an “egomaniac” and accused him of being responsible for her firing from\u00a0Fresh Prince. Smith also hit back, claiming that Hubert wanted the show to be “The Aunt Viv of Bel-Air.”\n<\/p>\n They made amends in 2020, when Smith revealed that he and Hubert sat down together for the first time<\/a> in 27 years for an HBO Max reunion<\/a> special timed for the show’s 30th anniversary.\n<\/p>\n During the sit-down<\/a>, Hubert explained that she wasn’t fired, but rather she just didn’t accept the “really bad deal” offered to her that meant a reduced salary and not being allowed to work elsewhere. Then a mother of a newborn and wife of an out-of-work husband, Hubert turned it down and was subsequently recast. Smith subsequently admitted that he could “see where I made the set very difficult for Janet,” conceding that, at the time, he saw felt like “everything was a threat” to him.\n<\/p>\n The duo ended by apologizing and embracing, with Smith declaring to Hubert, “You’re still my Aunt Viv.”<\/p>\n Janet Hubert and Will Smith on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’.<\/p>\n Alice S. Hall\/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty<\/p>\n Hubert is one of several\u00a0Fresh Prince of Bel-Air\u00a0alums to return for the new series, with all of them playing new roles.\n<\/p>\n Reid, who played Aunt Viv No. 2 on\u00a0Fresh Prince, portrayed Helen in\u00a0Bel-Air\u00a0season 1. Vernee Watson-Johnson, who played OG Will’s mom, Viola “Vy” Smith, portrayed Janice alongside Reid. Joseph Marcell, who played butler Geoffrey on\u00a0Fresh Prince, portrayed someone from\u00a0Bel-Air\u00a0Geoffrey’s past in season 3. Tatyana Ali, who played the precocious Ashley Banks on the OG series,\u00a0portrayed middle school English teacher Mrs. Hughes<\/a>\u00a0in season 2. Tyra Banks<\/a>, who played Will’s ex-girlfriend on Fresh Prince, was recently announced as another guest star for the series’ final season; the model and actress will play a former college classmate with a big personality with whom Viv (Cassandra Freeman) is reluctantly reunited.\n<\/p>\n