Now this is a story all about how…
Peacock’s “Bel-Air” ended with a surprise cameo from Will Smith.
The series, which premiered in 2022 and aired for four seasons, starred Jabari Banks and was a “reimagined” version of Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” which originally aired on NBC from 1990 to 1996.
Smith’s infamous 2022 Oscars incident – in which he slapped Chris Rock on live TV onstage at the Academy Awards – wasn’t the reason why the show took so long to bring him on.
“No, unrelated,” showrunner Carla Banks-Waddles told The Post.
In fact, production didn’t know that Smith, 57, would be able to film the series finale until two weeks before. Up to that point, Carla Banks-Waddles had “lost hope.”
“We knew that it was a possibility. We had been talking about it. The writers have pushed it from the beginning of the season, like a year ago. But you just never know timing wise, if it’s going to work out with his schedule. He’s booked solid, like every day. He’s a busy man!”
Banks-Waddles had no concerns that Smith’s battered reputation would impact the show.
“No, not at all. Because I think even the line when he says, ‘We’re human, you’re going to make mistakes,’ speaks to all of us,” she said.
Smith gave that advice to young Will (Banks) during the episode.
Onscreen, Smith tells young Will, “Trust me, you’re going to mess some things up and do some dumb sh-t. But you’re human — you’ll learn, you’ll grow. Life goes by fast, man, try to enjoy the ride.”
Smith’s mistake, “was just in a very public spotlight,” Banks-Waddles told The Post. “Our mistakes aren’t. So I think him being able to say that to his younger self just felt very self-reflective and celebratory, because we’re all human. We all make mistakes. We all learn. We evolve.”
Smith is an exec producer, but the finale marked his first time appearing on the drama.
“There was talk of him playing Will’s dad, and then Marlon Wayans stepped into the role. I think it was just a scheduling thing. I feel like things happen the way they’re supposed to happen,” she explained.
She wanted to find “the right role” for Smith, because they didn’t want it to feel “forced” or “gimmicky.”
“It did feel like, ‘Oh, he can’t just come on and play a parent at the school.’”
In the finale, when young Will was getting ready for adulthood, “it just felt like having the Santa Clause moment with him talking to his older self like, that’s it. That’s the right role for him.’”
Because Smith’s cameo happened last minute, they kept it under wraps.
“I was told on set – it was whispered in my ear that it looks like it’s going to happen. It was just like a roller coaster ride, because we would hear, ‘It’s just not going to happen.’”
“I’m not sure everybody in the cast knew up until the last minute. We were trying to contain it by telling the people who needed to know to make it happen,” she added.
In order to “preserve” the secret, she didn’t write his name in the script.
“I just called him ‘the man.’ That was a way to not say who he was, because in reading the script, it could be anybody. You don’t know exactly who it is. It could be any man coming in to step in, and just give advice to younger Will.”
