The series is out of Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith’s Westbrook Studios and Universal Television. It is based on the viral concept trailer from Morgan Cooper released in 2019. Peacock won a buzzy bidding war for the series after Smith contacted Cooper and wanted to develop the project. The NBCUniversal streamer already has a two-season order for the series.

The co-showrunners are T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson. Cooper is directing and is the co-writer and executive producer. Exec producers are Will Smith, Terence Carter, James Lassiter, Miguel Melendez, Malcolm Spellman, Quincy Jones, Benny Medina, and Andy & Susan Borowitz.

It stars  Jabari Banks as Will, Adrian Holmes as Phillip Banks, Cassandra Freeman as Vivian Banks, Olly Sholotan as Carlton Banks, Coco Jones as Hilary Banks, Akira Akbar as Ashley Banks, Jimmy Akingbola as Geoffrey, Jordan L. Jones as Jazz and Simone Joy Jones as Lisa.

Showrunner Rasheed Newson commented on how the cast and creators went about tackling established characters saying in a prior interview with S&A: “I mean the actors are coming into these roles that were portrayed by people in a way that’s really indelible, right? So people have a very strong feeling for who Uncle Phil is. And so there’s already a comparison waiting. There’s already a sort of baggage that comes with [these] roles. We didn’t want actors who had to also fight against type based on other projects they’ve had. We want you to love Aunt Viv. We don’t want you to be looking at the actress and going, ‘Oh, I hated her on that one show, she was the one who..,etc.’ We couldn’t have all of that sort of clouding it.”