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Brandon Zachary
Published 40 minutes ago
Brandon Zachary is a Lead Writer for Screen Rant's New Movie Team. He also writes or has written for Comicbook.com, CBR, That Hashtag Show, Just Watch, and TVBrittanyF. Brandon is an Emerging Screenwriters Semi-Finalist, co-writer of a Screencraft Quarter-Finalist, a seasoned on-screen interviewer, and a MASSIVE nerd. You can reach him at [email protected]
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Bel-Air season 4 closes out the Will Smith reboot on a tender note, and the team in front of the camera and behind the scenes couldn't be prouder. The dramatic retelling of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air just premiered the first three episodes of the final season on Peacock, after becoming a surprising success for the streaming platform.
Now, the show is set to close out its story with an emotionally rewarding season 4. During an interview with ScreenRant, Bel-Air's showrunner, Carla Banks-Waddles, and the stars of the series discussed what fans can expect from the final batch of episodes and how the show's biggest surprises affected them.
How Season 4 Of Bel-Air Came Together
Olly Sholotan and Jabari Banks from Bel-Air looking dressed up
Coming into season 4, fans were incredibly anxious to find out what had befallen Will and the rest of the people in his orbit. However, according to Carla Banks-Waddles, it was vital for the new season to address those burning questions without forgetting the character focus.
"There were a lot of cliffhangers in how we left season 3. We knew we needed to come back and answer a lot of those, including the kidnapping, Geoffrey's moving, and Vivian's pregnancy. There were a lot of things to come back and address."
This is partly what inspired the team's decision not to directly pick up but instead do a brief time-jump, giving the show the room and time to reveal everything at their own pace. "We come back into what looks like a normal season or a normal day in the Banks household."
"Fans are left wondering what happened, then we backtrack into answering those questions."This allowed those cliffhangers to not dominate their planned ending, and instead focus on Will and Carlton, according to Banks-Waddles.
"We spent a lot of time in the writers' room, maybe over a month, before we came up with eight episodes," the showrunner explained. This eventually led to the studio approving the arc almost exactly as pitched. "We stayed pretty true to that."
The Biggest Surprises On The Set Of Bel-Air
Bel-Air Season 4 Cast gathered together and smiling
Across four seasons, Bel-Air has completely reinvented the iconic Will Smith series. While the characters may still have core similarities and connections, they have been remixed drastically into exciting new forms.
Some of those changes still catch the cast by surprise, like the love triangle between Will, Carlton, and Lisa. "That wasn't in the original," Jabari Banks noted. "But it was a great plot point. It spurred on so many different dramatic scenes."
Similarly, Olly Sholoton did not see this version of Carlton having a drug addiction plotline, describing it as "a little crazy. When I originally got the audition, I was like, 'I can't do this!' Then my agent said, 'This is a drama. It's nothing like the original. Make it your own.'"
Upon seeing the character's dialogue about doing cocaine, he realized just how different it was going to be -- and it gave him the confidence to go big. "Let's surprise the audience. I think they'll come with us on this journey."
Banks-Waddles had a similar view on Carlton's arc in the show, explaining, "Carlton was such a polarizing character in the pilot and season 1. People were really angry... I think what surprised me was that fans stuck with us."
People became really protective of Carlton. His storyline, about his mental health and addiction, became so important to a lot of people. I think that journey was surprising. I was really proud of that storyline. Kudos to the fans for not turning us off right away.
For Simone Joy Jones, the warmth of Lisa came as a pleasant surprise. "She's such a good person. I feel like the surprises came from everywhere else." This set up her embrace of the season in unexpected directions.
For other members of the cast, the bigger surprises stemmed from their own experiences on-set or the reception of their characters from the fan base. Even the show's four-season run was unexpected among some of the stars.
Many of Hillary's storylines were similar to my actual experiences.
"It surprised me how long we've been at this," Coco Jones admitted. "It's a pleasant surprise, in this day and age. What surprised me the most about Hiliary was how much art was imitating my life... many of the storylines were similar to my actual experiences."
For Cassandra Freeman, the surprise was more offset by the friendships that developed between the cast. "The camaraderie and love that we have for each other is so much greater than any show I've ever been on. I have friends for life, I'm everyone's fan now."
Alkira Akbar shared that sentiment, noting, "how close we've grown just really surprised me. I feel like that's rare, especially when you're on set with this big of a cast. We're all just like one big family, hanging out on-screen and offset."
Jordan L. Jones noted that he really didn't expect to become "this heartthrob" among the fans. "People were online saying Jazz is fine, and I'm like, 'I wasn't tng to be!' That wasn't even part of my character, being this smooth guy. I had to explore that, I loved it."
Jimmy Akingbola found a similar response, admitting that he was initially a little taken aback. "A lot of women were like, 'Geoffrey's a snack.' And I'm such an actor, I was like, 'But what about the acting! There's no mention of that, just emojis and DMs.'"
Reflecting on how Geoffrey evolved over the show, Akingbola explained that "Everyone was telling me who Geoffrey is, to the point where in the scripts it would be 'Geoff is going to pop out of nowhere,' because Geoffrey is everywhere! That was one of my big surprises."
Leaving Bel-Air On A High Note With Season 4
Bel-Air is closing out on a high note with season 4, ending the show by showcasing the growth of the main characters while leaving the door open for bright futures. That's something that appealed to the cast on a deeper level.
"I think it's a very high school thing," Joy Jones explained, "to feel like this is everything that will be. You're feeling those feelings; they are so potent. I think it's so beautiful for young kids to be watching and to recognize the feeling that you may be at the end of a cliff, but realize you have wings."
Sholoton explained that "I am excited for the audience to go through the exact same thing we went through, which is a feeling of sadness. I'm going to miss this! But also an excitement for what's to come."
We are all musicians in our own right. We're all writers, we're all directors, we all have more projects to do. This industry isn't quite ready for what we're going to do, and that's sort of the feeling that we're all holding right now. I hope that's what the audience takes along with us.
Banks noted that "It feels like a funeral in a way. You're celebrating these four years of this life that we've created together, and now we have to let it go...I never knew I had so many aunts in the world. We built a real family beyond ourselves."
I know fans will feel the same feelings that we were having on the last day on set. There's gonna be so many tears. If we could count how many tears people are gonna drop from what we've created, I think we'd be so surprised and so proud.
Jones hopes that fans "experience the show and relate to it like the older one. This is a classic on a classic. I hope the show stands the rest of the time. I feel like the show does a great job of bringing something new to the concept. I hope fans are satisfied."
Freeman concurred, noting that "I hope they realize that they're part of the family of this, too. We were listening to the culture. We are the culture. I hope that they feel like we included them in this story, and hopefully that we fulfilled a lot of their own dreams and hopes."
For Akira, it was more important not to think of this as the final season. "I definitely walked into the season as if it were any other season. I just wanted to take in every single moment until the last few weeks, which were definitely emotional."
"We knew the show was ending," Jones noted, and as a result, "I think our main focus was to be present. Don't take any moment lightly, and just do the best you can. It was just about being present."
Akingbola had a similar belief, explaining that the entire cast "wanted to say goodbye with no regrets. I turned up on set with that in my chest and in everything I was doing. Let's end as we started, and look back with heads held high and with a strong sense of pride."
Banks-Waddles, meanwhile, just hopes fans walk away "with the feeling that yes, this is an ending, but there is always hope. I love what's going to happen to these characters in the future."
They're going to be okay. Even though I might not be around to see what they're doing next, I love what's next for them. The series finale is called 'The Next Act.' That's what I'm hoping for.
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Release Date
February 13, 2022
Network
Peacock
Showrunner
Carla Banks Waddles
Directors
Nick Copus, Keesha Sharp, Christine Swanson, John Scott, Mo McRae, Stacey Muhammad
Cast
See All-
Jabari Banks
Will Smith
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Adrian Holmes
Phillip Banks
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Bel-Air
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