The second season of Bel-Air is just getting started, as Peacock has released an exclusive clip previewing the second episode of the current season. In the footage, Ivy (Karrueche Tran) can be seen directing a film set, until she and her crew are interrupted by the arrival of Jazz (Jordan L. Jones). The episode will be available to stream on Thursday, March 2, with more chapters dropping weekly until the second season finale on March 27. Carla Banks Waddles, who was a co-executive producer during the first season of the show, has been promoted to main showrunner of the series.
Season two of Bel-Air picks up with Will (Jabari Banks) at a crossroads as a new figure comes into his life. He will be influenced by this figure to question everything he has learned during his stay in Bel-Air, while navigating his home life with the Banks family and trying to rebuild the trust that was broken at the end of last season. The audience will also see Hilary (Coco Jones) evolve as she becomes more of a boss in her influencer world and how that spills over into her relationship with Jazz. As you can tell, drama will be at the forefront during these new episodes.
Carlton's Journey
During a recent interview with Collider, Olly Sholotan talked about his experience playing Carlton during the first season of Bel-Air, and how his biggest expectation for the second season was to explore the friendship between his character and Will. Sholotan sees the two characters as "diametrically opposed, but with similarities between them": Will and Carlton sharing a different dynamic than the one from the first season will allow both characters to respect each other, and realize than there's more to a person than what meets the eye.
The actor also recalled how he felt a lot of pressure when auditioning for such a beloved role from the original series, even mentioning how he didn't know it was supposed to be a dramatic re-imagining at first. Here's what Sholotan had to say regarding his first steps in the role of Carlton:
I was terrified. When I first got the audition, I remember looking at it and being like, “A Fresh Prince reboot to play Carlton? I can’t do what Alfonso [Ribeiro] did.” I didn’t even put two and two together and realize that it was a dramatic reimagining. In hip-hop, when a rapper kills a beat, we say, “Don’t touch that beat anymore. They’ve rapped over it. They’ve done the thing. Don’t touch that beat.” Alfonso killed this role.
After realizing the different tone the Peacock production would have, Sholotan saw an opportunity to bring his own voice to the character, feeling more comfortable in the role during the show's two seasons. You can watch the new clip for the newest episode of Bel-Air, titled 'Speaking Truth', below: