Following last year's successful miniseries The New Edition Story, BET is planning to release its follow up, The Bobby Brown Story, this fall. We already knew that Woody McClain will be reprising his New Edition Story role as Bobby, and now Deadline is reporting that more cast members have joined the two-part miniseries. Mekhi Phifer, Get Out's Lil Rel Howery, T.K. Carter, Laz Alonso, and Lance Gross will also star.
Phifer is set to play Brown's brother Tommy, Gross will play his childhood friend, and Howery will play Brown's business manager, Brian Irvine. Alonso meanwhile, will star as the record executive who was instrumental in making Brown a solo success.
The New Edition Story became the most-watched and highest-rated broadcast in BET's history, after 4.4 million viewers tuned in over the course of its three-night broadcast. In an era where streaming services are currently dominating original programming landscape, the ratings success was quite the feat for a cable network, and it's likely that the followup draw big numbers as well.
The new series will chronicle the post-New Edition career of R&B's original bad boy, including his departure and brief return to the group in the 90s, his reported affair with Janet Jackson, his battle with addiction, his tumultuous marriage to late icon Whitney Houston, and the loss of their daughter, Bobbi Kristina, to an overdose.
That's a lot of ground to cover, but with the two-night event in the very capable hands of Spike Lee protégé Kiel Adrian Scott, we're not too worried. The New Edition Story will premiere in September exclusively on BET.
