Popular sitcom set to be revived by Netflix 37 years after it first debuted

THE COSBY Show spin-off A Different World is getting a reboot. 

A new series set decades after the events of A Different World is in the works at Netflix. 

Getty

Netflix is eyeing a return to Hillman College[/caption]

Getty

The streaming giant is working on a reboot of A Different World[/caption]

Getty

The popular 90s sitcom was a spin-off of The Cosby Show[/caption]

A Different World ran from 1987 to 1993 and followed a group of students and friends at the fictional, historically black university, Hillman College. 

The sitcom was a spin-off of The Cosby Show and initially followed Lisa Bonnet’s character, Denise Huxtable, who was the daughter of Bill Cosby’s Dr Heathcliff ‘Cliff’ Huxtable. 

However, Lisa only stayed on the show for the first series, after which her-co star Jasmine Guy, who played Whitley Gilbert, became the show’s female main character. She starred opposite Kadeem Hardison, who played Dwayne Wayne. 

Dawnn Lewis, Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, Charnele Brown, Glynn Turman, Sinbad and Lou Myers rounded out the central cast of the sitcom. 

As the series progressed, Whitley and Dwayne developed a romantic relationship which led to them getting married and Whitley finding out she was pregnant in the penultimate episode. 

It seems the characters went on to have more children off screen after the series ended and the upcoming Netflix spin-off will follow their youngest daughter as she heads off to Hillman college. 

However, it’s not yet clear if Jasmine and Kadeem will also have cameos in the single-cam spin-off show. 

Not much else has been confirmed in terms of plotlines for the upcoming spin-off, but viewers can expect it to tackle issues similar issues to its predecessor such as race and class relations, sexual assault, and equal rights, which The Cosby Show typically avoided. 

The sequel will be penned by Grey’s Anatomy and Bel-Air reboot writer Felicia Pride.

It will also feature several members of the original show’s creative team. Among them producer and director Debbie Allen, Tom Werner (whose company Carsey-Werner produced A Different World), and writers Reggie Rock Bythewood and Gina Prince-Bythewood. They’ll all serve as executive producers on the project, along with Felicia and Mandy Summers.

A continuation of A Different World has been in various stages of development throughout the years but was paused by the legal issues that surrounded the disgraced Cosby Show star and creator Bill Cosby, who was found guilty of sexual assault in 2018.

No casting for the proposed A Different World sequel has been announced.

Getty

The upcoming spin-off will follow Dwayne and Jasmine’s daughter as she attends their old college[/caption]

Getty

The beloved TV couple may also make an appearance in the spin-off[/caption]