Fresh Prince Reunion in the Works at HBO MAX

HBO Max continues to bet heavy on reunion specials as a way to gain subscribers.

Last week, we reported that the WarnerMedia owned streaming service is planning a special reunion with the cast of The West Wing to coincide with the upcoming US presidential election. Now, HBO MAX will be bringing the cast of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air together to film a reunion to coincide with the show’s 30th anniversary, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Since it premiered in 1990, Fresh Prince has remained a wildly popular and lucrative sitcom in syndication, DVD and now streaming. For six seasons on NBC, the series followed Will Smith’s character who is sent from his working class Philadelphia neighborhood to the upper class California lifestyle of his Uncle Phil and Aunt Vivian. While it was a never a massive critical or ratings success like some of NBC’s other sitcoms of the era like Seinfeld, Fresh Prince struck a chord with the underserved African American audience by balancing laugh out loud comedy with serious issued relevant of the time. It also kickstarted Smith’s acting career after years of being a successful rapper.

Alongside Smith, the special will bring back other series regulars such as Tatyana Ali, Alfonso Riberio, DJ Jazzy and more. According to HBO Max, there will also be music and other surprises in store. Smith will be producing through his production company Westbrook Media.

The special is scheduled to shoot on September 10, 30 years to the day that the show premiered and will hit HBO MAX in time for Thanksgiving. The service is home to all six seasons of the show. This follows the heels of the news that a dramatic reboot entitled Bel Air is currently being shopped to networks and streamers.

It seems that HBO MAX is betting big on reunions of their library programming as a way to entice consumers to pay for the service. In addition to Fresh Prince and The West Wing, the streamer is still pushing a date to resume their much anticipated Friends reunion which has suffered numerous COVID-19 delays. In a way, it makes a lot of sense business wise as being the exclusive home to specials that bring casts of beloved shows can encourage audiences to give them a watch and discover other content on the platform. We’ll see if that strategy works this fall when The Fresh Prince reunion special along with that of The West Wing hit HBO MAX.