As “Bel-Air” closes out its fourth and final season, the cast is savoring the milestone. BET Current sat down with the cast to talk about the show’s progression through four seasons, why this reimagining of “The Fresh Prince” matters, and what viewers can expect for Season 4.

“I think if my memory serves me correctly, we are the longest-running original show on Peacock,” Olly Sholotan, who plays Carlton, said. He proudly added that “Bel-Air” is the only show on the network to make it to four seasons. But the accomplishment is bittersweet.

The ensemble cast admitted they’ll “miss each other so much” after years of working and building the Banks family universe together. Jabari Banks, who plays Will, said they had to stock up on tissues to prepare for the tears as they filmed the family’s senior year. Banks said it “felt like a graduation in real life and on the show!”

From the start, “Bel-Air” has been more than a straightforward reimagining of “The Fresh Prince.” The show turned up the drama, dove into issues like anxiety, addiction, and family trauma in ways the original sitcom merely scratched the surface of. The cast of “Bel-Air” relished in this level of depth. 

Banks said playing Will has been a journey in maturity. He shared that Season 4 found Will realizing “his parents are just human.” As an actor, he said it’s been fun navigating those intense layers, and he knows that a lot of people are going to resonate with his character’s emotional growth.

Sholotan’s Carlton has traveled a similar path of redemption. He proudly recalled that the show “introduced [us] to this character that we did not like from jump,” referring to season 1’s early episodes where Cartlon was pretty insufferable. But over four seasons, the audience has watched Carlton overcome addiction, anxiety, and self-doubt, and have begun to root for him. “We’ve gotten the chance to watch him grow and understand him deeper. Audiences are going to be really, really proud of the young man that Carlton has become,” Sholotan said. As the first few episodes have been underway, Carlton is emerging as a thoughtful, self-possessed leader, but he’s still got some unsavory secrets lurking.

The women of “Bel-Air” also received some rich arcs this season. Simone Joy Jones, who plays Will’s high school girlfriend, Lisa, loved turning her smaller role into a 3D/4D character. She told us about a chat she had with the showrunner, Carla Banks-Waddles, about needing to “flesh Lisa out.” By isolating Lisa’s backstory (a father who distrusts her boyfriend, a deceased mother, and a new white stepmom and baby brother), she pushed the writers to give Lisa depth, and it was “such a joy to be able to play and just round her out.” 

Coco Jones, who plays Hilary, similarly got to expand on a character originally played for laughs. She said she’s proud that in this version, Hilary “has a lot of things that she’s pursuing…they can’t be bought… they have to be earned.” In practice, Season 4 shows that eleven glamorous Hilary Banks doesn’t have it all together. “Just because you look like you got it all together does not mean you actually have it all together,” Jones noted. She was glad to show Hilary’s vulnerability as well as her ambition, qualities audiences didn’t really get to see from the original character.

Little sister Ashley, played by Akira Akbar, finally finds her voice too! Akbar said Ashley is unafraid to speak her mind. “Ashley, she’s going to be straightforward and real with what she believes,” Akbar said, even if it means getting on her mother, Aunt Viv’s, nerves. And speaking of Aunt Viv, played by Cassandra Freeman, she said that playing the Banks family matriarch reminded her of motherhood’s tug-of-war, which she said is “putting everybody else first.” Freeman maintains that Aunt Viv seemingly always does that, even if it means she falls apart. Freeman giggled at the fact that Aunt Viv’s best scenes are the ones where she is actively juggling a public role and her own private struggles. 

Freeman said, “I really love that we are getting to see so many different nuances of who these people are, who we thought we knew back in those sitcom days, and the way that y'all have filled these characters out in such beautiful ways.”

Adrian Holmes (Philip Banks) highlighted how Uncle Phil remains the moral anchor. Early in Season 4, Phil was pursuing power and running for district attorney. By the finale, he’s learned to value “the simple things, and inner peace” over career status. Even as he holds a powerful role, Holmes is keen to remind us that Phil is “real powerful, but flawed.”

Even a traditionally one-note role like Jazz, Will’s Bel-Air bestie, got an overhaul. Jazz, played by Jordan L. Jones, said the new Jazz is “so different” from the old slapstick character. In “Bel-Air,” Jazz is more of a mentor to Will, a tortured soulmate to Hilary, and a hard-working businessman. This Jazz urges Will not to let “this town” forget who he is, and that helps drive Banks’ Will in so many ways.

As “Bel-Air” comes to a close in Season 4, the cast said they’re feeling both pride and nostalgia. Jones said completing the series is “bittersweet,” but he’s “so proud” of what they have achieved. He’s realized how brave it was to retell such an “iconic” story, and that the result stands on its own. 

“It’s up there with the original,” Jones said. “We did our thing. We’re a part of history.”