A sequel series to “A Different World” centered on Dwayne and Whitley’s daughter is in early development at Netflix, Variety hears from sources.
The project hails from writer and executive producer Felicia Pride, whose credits include “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Queen Sugar.” Debbie Allen, Mandy Summers, Tom Werner, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Bythewood also serve as executive producers. Werner produced the original show via The Carsey-Werner Company.
Netflix declined to comment.
“A Different World,” itself a spinoff of “The Cosby Show” and created by Bill Cosby, ran for six seasons on NBC starting in 1987, and it followed Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) and her new classmates at Hillman College, a fictional historically Black university. After Bonet exited the series after one season, “A Different World” shifted its focus to the other students, played by Dawnn Lewis, Glynn Turman, Cory Tyler, Kadeem Hardison, Lou Myers, Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, Jasmine Guy, Charnele Brown and Jada Pinkett Smith.
At the center of the retooled series was the love story between Whitley (Guy) and Dwayne (Hardison), who got engaged in Season 5. In the penultimate episode of the sitcom, Whitley discovers she is pregnant, setting the stage for this sequel series more than 30 years later. In the new show, Whitley and Dwayne’s daughter will attend Hillman.
Popular on Variety
The extent of Cosby’s connection to the sequel series is unclear. Cosby was released from prison in 2021 after serving three years when his sexual assault conviction was overturned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Casting for the “A Different World” sequel series has not officially begun. The show follows in the footsteps of another Carsey-Werner series, “That ’70s Show,” which landed a sequel series, “That ’90s Show” on Netflix in 2023. It also resembles the format of Peacock’s “Bel-Air,” for which Pride served as a supervising producer on Season 3.
