{"id":337138,"date":"2025-12-08T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:20:11","slug":"bel-air-series-finale-welcomes-back-major-original-character","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/337138\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bel-Air’ Series Finale Welcomes Back Major Original Character"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from the series finale of Peacock<\/a>\u2018s Bel-Air<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross its four seasons, Peacock\u2019s Bel-Air reimagined the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in a dark, unique way, with little hints from the past via appearances by actors from the original series. <\/p>\n

\n\tAmong them were Daphne Maxwell Reid, who played Aunt Viv #2 in the OG series, portrayed Helen in Season 1, Episode 9; Vernee Watson-Johnson, who played Will\u2019s mom Vy Smith in the OG series, portrayed Janice in same episode as Maxwell Reid; Tatyana Ali, who played Ashley Banks originally, portrayed middle school teacher, Mrs. Hughes, in Season 2; Joseph Marcell, who played butler Goeffrey in\u00a0Fresh Prince, portrayed someone from Geoffrey\u2019s past in Season 3; and Tyra Banks, who played Will\u2019s (Will Smith<\/a>) ex-girlfriend from Philly, Jackie Ames, appeared in Season 4, as did Janet Hubert, the original Aunt Viv, in Episode 7 of Season 4 of Bel-Air.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the new series hoped to bring in as many former stars from Fresh Prince as possible, a few fell through the cracks, like Alfonso Ribeiro, Karyn Parsons, and DJ Jazzy Jeff. One name omitted from this list is Will Smith, the \u201cFresh Prince\u201d himself, because, SURPRISE, he appeared in the final moments of the Bel-Air finale.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jabari<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJabari Banks and Will Smith in Peacock\u2019s \u2018Bel-Air\u2019 series finale<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeacock<\/p>\n

\n\tWe can tease that Smith\u2019s appearance alongside Bel-Air\u2018s new Will Smith (the character) almost didn\u2019t happen. More on that from writer, showrunner, and executive producer Carla Banks Waddles, whom we caught up with last week to break down the events of the series finale to post later today.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo who does Smith portray in the series? It\u2019s being left up to interpretation, but essentially, he\u2019s Will Smith (the character) in the future giving advice to himself in the past. The character could also be viewed as a manifestation of his inner self, or however else any of you see him as.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo set the scene, Will (Banks), Carlton (Olly Sholotan) and Jazz (Jordan L. Jones) drive to an area where you can see much of the city before Will heads to the University of Pennsylvania in his hometown of Philly, where he was accepted early into the Business program. He asks his buddies for a moment to take it all in by himself when a stranger shows up with some words of wisdom.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSteppin\u2019 into the future is kinda scary, huh?\u201d the stranger wearing sunglasses asks Will. When he removes them, viewers can see it\u2019s Will Smith, the actor playing the character of the same name from the future.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNah, I\u2019m cool,\u201d Smith (the character) tells the stranger.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe stranger replies, \u201cIt\u2019s okay, I won\u2019t tell your boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jabari<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJabari Banks and Will Smith in Peacock\u2019s \u2018Bel-Air\u2019 series finale<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeacock<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pair shares a laugh before having a chat. The younger Will speaks on his fears of going home and forgetting who he became while living in Southern California. Will from the future reassures him that his feelings are natural because it means he\u2019s become someone \u201cworth holding onto.\u201d Older Will also notes that not everyone has it all figured out yet, even if they pretend they do. Younger Will replies, \u201cI don\u2019t know, it sounds like you\u2019ve got it all figured out, OG.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOlder Will quickly responds, \u201cOh no, no, sir. Trust me, you\u2019re going to mess some things up and do some dumb shit. But, you\u2019re human. You\u2019ll learn, you\u2019ll grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is a full-circle moment for Smith (the actor), who began his career with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which premiered in 1990 and ran for six seasons until 1996. It\u2019s been 35 years since he first played the character and took the world by storm as an actor, singer, and producer with multiple accolades under his belt, like the Oscar and multiple Grammy Awards. <\/p>\n

\n\tFuture Will\u2019s speech could also be interpreted as Future Smith speaking on the mistakes he\u2019s made in his almost 4 decades in the industry, which haven\u2019t been many. Either way, the heartfelt words and their many layers are beautiful, and anyone watching can take from them what they may. And for those of us fortunate enough to have been around for both shows, it\u2019s also a look back at our lives, knowing that we\u2019ve hopefully done the best we could.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll four seasons of Peacock\u2019s Bel-Air are available to stream now in their entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT: The following reveals major plot points from the series finale of Peacock\u2018s Bel-Air. Across its four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[139016,88,220,92,4277],"class_list":{"0":"post-337138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bel-air","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-peacock","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-will-smith"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}