Could We Be Getting New 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' Merch Soon?

The artist behind the 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' animations quickly shut down cartoon rumors.

'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' star Will Smith
Getty

Image via Getty/NBC

'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' star Will Smith

Some of our favorite ‘90s sitcoms are being given the reboot treatment lately: Sister, Sister, Party of Five, and Charmed are just some of the many shows and movies that will be making a comeback. In this reboot frenzy, though, one iconic ‘90s sitcom has been seemingly left behind: The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Whether you think a revival of the show would be a good idea or not, Will Smith is already out here teasing the possibility of a cartoon revival, whileTMZ has allegedly learned that the company that owns the rights to the show have just applied to trademark the name for new merch. Could something be brewing?

When Will Smith isn’t flexing his Dad muscles on Instagram and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters, he’s sharing some nostalgic Fresh Prince content. Yesterday he posted an animation made by Howard Russell of The Sketch Lab, adding that he had never thought of the show as a cartoon.

 

 

TMZ decided to go one step further and suggest that Smith is hinting at a possible Fresh Prince revival as a cartoon. After all, the company that applied for a Fresh Prince of Bel Air trademark allegedly did it for merchandise that includes toys, action figures, and kids’ games. It would make some sense that a rollout of nostalgic Fresh Prince merch would be released alongside the announcement of a reboot.

However, Russell, the artist behind the sketch, took to his own Instagram to shut down TMZ’s speculation. “There is no current show being worked on at the moment,” he wrote in the caption. “I merely hope my work just planted a seed. Fresh Prince is an iconic show, we all loved it.”

While we will have to wait to see how substantial the seed really was, we can start dreaming of what a revival would look like if it ever happened. Smith has actually spoken a little bit about the possibility of a Fresh Prince reunion. In December, during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, he revealed that he has trouble watching himself in some early episodes of the sitcom because it was his first role and he was inexperienced. He also admitted that if there were to be a Fresh Prince reunion, he would have to play Uncle Phil because he’s so much older now. So, okay, it wouldn’t be an exact one-to-one reboot, but Smith didn’t outright deny the possibility either (unlike, for example, Lisa Kudrow did last week when presented with the concept of a Friends revival.)

There’s also that super-dark SNL parody of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song to get your creativity flowing. Remember that a revival could go the total opposite way of the original sitcom, and instead benefit from a darker, moodier tone. Who knows? It would probably be better than Bright.

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