“Fresh Prince” Star on Reboot: “It Ain’t Gonna Happen”

Alfonso Ribeiro sat down with HuffPost Live to discuss rumors of a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reboot.

Fresh Prince Reboot

Earlier this it was rumored that Will Smith was in the early stages of developing a Fresh Prince reboot in which he would act as producer in the fish-out-of-water series.

People appeared to confirm the rumor that the series was the focus of Smith’s production company.

Weeks later, however, Fresh Prince creator Andy Borowitz attempted to clarify the rumor, stating that, “It’s not a reboot exactly. From what I understand, Will is producing a fish-out-of-water comedy that’s described as being in the same vein as Fresh Prince.”

Borowitz also shrugged off the thought of a reboot, stating, “I would rather not envision a 2015 Fresh Prince. The 1990 one is still going strong.”

In October 2015, Alfonso Ribeiro sat down with HuffPost Live to discuss rumors of a Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reboot, and made it clear that he didn’t think it was going to happen, nor was he in favor of the idea.

When asked if he thought the news of a Fresh Prince reboot was exciting, Riberio laughed, “I’ve heard the rumors. It’s not exciting to me because I know that it ain’t gonna happen. So I’m like ‘It ain’t gonna happen.'”

“If it happened, it wouldn’t be Fresh Prince, it would be something that’s taking the story of the show and having all new people do something. To me, that’s not Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. There’s one Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Is Will Smith starring in it? No. Then it ain’t no Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He’s the Fresh Prince, there’s no other Fresh Prince.”

When it was suggested that Smith’s son Jaden might star in a reboot, Riberio replied, “He ain’t the Fresh Prince, he’s the son of the Fresh Prince.”

Ribeiro also said that James Avery who played Uncle Phil was the “backbone of that show. Without him, we have no show, and so I simply feel like just isn’t… there’s no reason to do it. People loved that show and I think that people should remember that show and there’s no reason to mess it up, ’cause all you can do is mess it up. You’re not going to make it better, right? So don’t mess it up. Let’s let history remain history.”