When Peacock’s Bel-Air was first coming together, Will Smith was at the center of the buzz, and not just the TV character. The original Fresh Prince actor was also a key component to getting Bel-Air made, acting as an executive producer for the series, giving the young cast advice, and even attending the premiere with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and son Jaden. But the Bel-Air cast recently did another big event and Will Smith was not present this time.
Those with a Peacock subscription can look forward to seeing Season 2 of Bel-Air in 2023; however, the cast came together before filming at NBC’s FYC event to stir up some Emmy’s buzz, as well as to talk about the show and show off some rad outfits. Take a look.
As you can see, the only "Will Smith" on that stage is Jabari Banks, who plays the famous Philly basketball player who gets into some trouble and is shipped off to his Uncle’s house in Bel-Air. Banks and Smith had previously taken photos together ahead of the show’s Peacock premiere, but he flew solo here.
Bel-Air landing an Emmy nod would be a big deal, and under typical circumstances you would think the show’s executive producer might want to be a part of that. Now granted, if it had been a typical day in the life and Will Smith hadn’t attended, one might assume he’d be on a movie set or doing something else as part of his busy Hollywood career, but that's not seemingly the case here.
In fact, Will Smith hasn’t really spent a lot of time out and about since the slap incident that occurred during this year’s Oscars ceremony. He was seen in India over a month ago at this point, and with projects either being halted or delayed, it’s been a slow period for the actor and producer, who had a bunch of projects lined up before the slap incident with Chris Rock on the Oscars stage.
After the incident happened, it was revealed a couple of Will Smith projects had been put on pause, including his upcoming Netflix movie Fast & Loose (which had also recently lost Director David Leitch) and the highly anticipated Bad Boys 4. It was clarified later the fourth Bad Boys flick is still in development at Sony, but earlier this month, another Smith project Emancipation was pushed from 2022 to 2023. So there's been an effort to push back projects starring the actor.
While the initial brouhaha has died down, it’s still a little unclear what the future will hold for the former Fresh Prince actor. I’m sure the last thing the Peacock series needed were Oscars-related questions when there’s so much to amp up for Emmys season and to talk about ahead of Season 2 of Bel-Air. On that latter note, we’ll let you know as soon as there are official updates.
