The comedy series comes from writer/executive producer Felicia Pride and executive producers Debbie Allen, Mandy Summers, Tom Werner, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Bythewood.
Allen, Werner, Prince-Bythewood and Bythewood all worked on the successful original NBC series, a spinoff of The Cosby Show, which ran for six seasons. Allen was director-producer, Prince-Bythewood and Bythewood were writers, and Werner was executive producer for The Carsey-Werner Company.
A Different World followed Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and her new classmates at Hillman College, a fictional historically black college. Although Bonet left after one season, the series continued with the remaining lead actors Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Dawnn Lewis, Darryl M. Bell, Sinbad, Charnele Brown, Cree Summer, and Glynn Turman.
The reimagined second season continued to follow the lives of the students, with the love story between Guy's Whitley Gilbert and Hardison's Dwayne Wayne at its center. Dwayne, famous for his flip-up glasses, finally put a ring on them in the season five episode Save the Best For Last.
Although Whitley was adamant that she didn’t want children, she discovers she’s pregnant in When One Door Closes, the series’ penultimate episode, and everyone is excited. Things take a turn for the worse when Dwayne reveals that he’s taken a job in Japan where he and his wife will raise their family— in A Different World.
The sequel will focus on the couple’s youngest daughter, who is also now attending Hillman. While casting has yet to begin officially, rumor has it that conversations have been had with the original cast members about interest and availability, and the response has been positive.
A sequel to the series has been in various stages of development over the years, but has been put on hold for a variety of reasons, including the legal issues surrounding A Different World creator Bill Cosby.
The cast reunited on Today and The View earlier this year to celebrate the impact and legacy of A Different World. In February, they embarked on a 10-city tour, visiting black high schools and colleges to encourage students to apply.
Other notable A Different World actors include Marisa Tomei, who made her television debut in the first season; and Jada Pinkett Smith, who starred in the last two seasons early in her career.
The sequel to Different World follows the template Werner used for another classic sitcom in the Carsey-Werner library, That ’70s Show, on Netflix. The sequel series That ’90s Show, which also focuses on the daughter of the original’s main characters, is in the middle of its second season on the streamer.
Before selling the pilot to Netflix, Pride was a supervising producer on the third season of Peacock’s Bel-Air, a dramatic reimagining of Will Smith’s The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. She also served as a writer and producer on ABC’s Shonda Rhimes medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.
She is currently developing the series Livelihood for Netflix and Seven Days in June for Amazon. Her production company Honey Chile Entertainment is producing and writing the Lifetime original Black Magick. She previously co-wrote multiple seasons of Ava DuVernay’s Queen Sugar.
Netflix declined to comment.
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