Fresh Prince reboot: Five young rappers who could replace Will Smith

Let’s be honest: the thought of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air without Will Smith just feels wrong. Smith is the Fresh Prince, and the show is a Nineties gem that feels entirely of its time.

But with a new reboot of the series apparently in the works, with Smith producing, we might have to brace for a new take on the classic sitcom.

We know the reboot drill by now. If the studio wants this thing to happen, it likely will – in which case we’d rather it has a great charismatic star to focus on and becomes its own great thing. We can dream, right?

Here are five people who – if we really, really, must have a new Fresh Prince – could take on the role.

1) Chance The Rapper

Chancelor Bennett, aka Chance The Rapper, could be a perfect choice for the Fresh Prince. He’s hugely charismatic, has a ludicrously expressive face, and is only 22 years old. He tends to rap over positive, soulful beats that aren’t a world away from Will Smith’s family-friendly output – as long as he can tone down the swearing and his penchant for LSD.

2) Childish Gambino

If not Chance, what about Childish? OK, so Donald Glover is probably a bit too old for this now and seems to be picking up serious acting roles (he’ll be appearing in Ridley Scott’s The Martian soon), but he has previous experience of sitcoms after playing Troy in Community for four and a half seasons.

3) Jaden Smith

While the amount of people who want this could probably be counted on one hand, Will Smith’s 17-year-old son Jaden becoming the new Fresh Prince seems like a real possibility. Not only does Will have a habit of keeping things in the family (he produced the Karate Kid remake that starred Jaden, and co-starred with him in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth), but Jaden is still young enough to convincingly play the role. Would this mean an Uncle Phil-esque role for Will himself? Also: based on the insanity of Jaden’s Twitter feed, this could be the trippy alt-universe Fresh Prince that nobody wants, but everybody would be intrigued to see.