As spiking coronavirus cases push the United States toward a massive second wave of the disease just before Thanksgiving, Will Smith offered a potential alternative to family gatherings on Friday: a first look at the forthcoming Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reunion special, which will premiere November 19 on HBO Max.
Shot in September to coincide with the show’s debut 30 years earlier, the reunion brought Smith back together with cast members Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Joseph Marcell, Daphne Maxwell Reid, and Alfonso Ribeiro, plus frequent co-star and longtime Smith collaborator DJ Jazzy Jeff.
The special also reconnected Smith with Janet Hubert, an original star on Fresh Prince, who left the show before the fourth season under contentious circumstances. In the years that followed, both Smith and Hubert took shots at each other in the press, with Hubert famously calling Smith an “asshole” at one point and saying she would never appear again with the show’s cast.
Smith, for his part, softened his stance on Hubert over time. “I think both of the Aunt Vivs are really, really fantastic,” he said in 2016, before adding that Hubert “brought a really powerful dignity to the show. I think she’s brilliant. As an artist, there are so many things she does. She sings, she dances, she’s like a really powerful artist. I loved what she brought to the Fresh Prince.”
While Smith previously revealed a still image of himself reconciling with Hubert alone, the new trailer for the Fresh Prince special teases that she actually appeared on set with Smith and the entire cast. That, too, is a surprise, considering her response to a reunion photo Ribeiro posted on social media in 2017.
“Folks keep telling me about it. He was always the ass wipe for Will [Smith],” Hubert wrote on Facebook at the time. “There will never be a true reunion of the Fresh Prince. I have no interest in seeing any of these people on that kind of level.”
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