‘Give it a chance’: The trailer for the ‘A Different World’ sequel sparks debate before its Netflix debut
TheGrio...
Fans react to the “A Different World” trailer as its creators share more of what went into the making of the Netflix reboot.
“A Different World” hasn’t even aired yet, and already we have people reminding us to “give it a chance.”
The trailer for the highly anticipated reboot set to land on Netflix exactly 39 years after the original aired on September 24, 1987, dropped on Monday, and the buzz around the show has only heated up more.
When the new series arrives on Netflix, produced by Debbie Allen, it will star Maleah Joi Moon as Whitley Gilbert and Dwayne Wayne’s daughter, Deborah, as she begins her journey at the fictional HBCU Hillman College. In the trailer, we witness her arrive on campus and be thrust immediately into a whirlwind collegiate world that is both extremely new and nostalgic for fans.
From comparing the reboot to recent shows centered on Black college life, including Freeform’s “Grownish,” Netflix’s “Dear White People,” and BET’s “The Quad,” to already declaring it corny, to lauding it, to debating who it’s even for, and everything in between, the anticipation is creating an interesting dialogue along a generational divide.
“Kinda want to watch the A Different World reboot but also kind of scared because A Different World is really my favorite show on earth 😭😭 so if they gonna do this they better do it good but also love they kept real cast members…” one user on Threads wrote in a post.
Another on the same platform added, “The A Different World reboot looks like it’s going to cater to the Gen Z crowd and i don’t know how ima feel about it but I will be watching.”
A constant refrain has been to remind us that while it is filled with nostalgia for Gen X and millennials, it is also very much about and for the next generation.
“I hope we remember that A Different World is a sequel iteration of ADW and not a reboot,” one user said in a post on Threads. “If anyone remembers Boomerang on BET, it was a sequel to the movie Boomerang, where it focused on Eddie Murphy’s daughter and her friend group. We’re focusing on Dewayne/Whitley’s daughter as the central character and friends. We acknowledge the OG cast will be apart of this new iteration but it’s mainly a new lens through the eyes of the current generation.”
“The truth of the matter is yall are never pleased. So it doesn’t matter if ‘A Different World’ is reboot, a different look, catered to older millennials, catered to genz yall were gonna hate regardless. So let the people that wanna see it enjoy it!” wrote social media strategist Teja Smith.
During the Netflix panel at the American Black Film Festival in Miami in May, showrunner and executive producer Felicia Pride shared more of the mindset behind the reboot.
“I think that what was important to us was maintaining what made the original so special, and that feeling that the original gave me. One of the things that I think about a lot is like wanting the sequel to feel like a warm hug,” she expressed.
“Bringing all the legacy things that made us feel good, made us think, made us push forward, and then apply it to a new lens, a social media first lens, a digital lens that is living in state violence, that is living in globalization, that is living in all these things,” she continued. “What do they have to say? What do they need, and wanting to hear from them, and see them reflected.”
At the time Allen added, “It’s not going back, you know, like I say, the same river, but it’s different water. Can’t step in that same water, it’s gone. So you got to know where you are in the river, so you can navigate, and it’s a good thing. It is a good thing to be wide open, and you have to be open to change.”
Among the discourse since the trailer arrived, there’s also been an overwhelming sense that the show should just be given a fair chance.
“The first season of OG A Different World was not that great to me, that’s my opinion, but I watched it and got to know the characters. Then in the second season I feel like the characters came into their own and the show grew to be a cultural phenomenon,” another user wrote on Threads. “I’m not saying that the reboot will do the same, but damn can’t we just give it a chance?”
“I see a lot of us that grew up on A Different World, have a lot of criticism for the reboot. We had our show and time,” wrote one user on Threads.
“Allow this show to be inspiration for the upcoming generations in whatever way it looks like today,” she continued. “It’s employing black actors both new and old and giving us something new to watch for us. That’s hard to come by as is. Everything is not targeted towards us and as we continue to age it will be even less. Don’t shoot down the few things we have for the younger generation.”
Or as one of the characters puts it in the trailer, “Give Hillman a chance!”
“A Different World” arrives on Netflix on September 24.