Hooray for Black Hollywood! Stars like Beyoncé, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall and Halle Berry are either in front of the camera or working behind the scenes on reboots of some of our favorite films and TV shows. So mark your calendars — here’s what’s currently airing and coming soon to a big or small screen near you.
Now Playing
Boomerang (BET)
With executive producers Lena Waithe (The Chi) and Halle Berry, BET’sBoomerangis a millennial revamp of the 1992 romantic comedy that starred Eddie Murphy, Robin Givens and Berry. This version stars newcomer Tetona Jackson as Simone Graham, a budding advertising executive and the daughter of the beloved Berry and Murphy characters, Angela and Marcus. It also costars Tequan Richmond (Everybody Hates Chris) as Bryson Broyer, son of Givens’ vixen Jacqueline Broyer.
April
Twilight Zone (CBS All Access streaming, April 1)
On the heels of his best original screenplay Oscar win in 2018 forGet Outand his much-anticipated follow-up,Us, Jordan Peele is the new king of psychological horror. So it’s fitting that the Key & Peele funnyman set his sights on a revival of the classic sci-fi series,The Twilight Zone, which he hosts and serves as an executive producer. Our girl Sanaa Lathan will appear in a new take on the classicTwilight episode “Rewind.”
June
Men in Black: International (June 14)
Directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton,Set It Off), this MIB reboot stars Tessa Thompson and Chris Hemsworth as federal agents who pick up where Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones left off — saving the world from evil aliens.
Shaft (June 14)
Three generations of the Black exploitation hero John Shaft star in this spin-off with a clever script penned by Girls Trip and Black-ish creator Kenya Barris. Directed by Tim Story (Barbershop,Think Like a Man), Richard Roundtree resumes his role as the original badass detective; Samuel L. Jackson, who starred in the 2000 reboot, is Shaft’s nephew, John Shaft II and rising star Jessie T. Usher (Survivor’s Remorse) is Jackson’s son, John Shaft Jr. And friend-in-our-head Regina Hall costars as Jackson’s ex.
July
The Lion King (July 19)
It’s the circle of life! We can’t wait to see the new, computer-generated reimagining of the 1994 Disney animated classic,The Lion King. The all-star cast includes Donald Glover as the voice of cheerful lion cub Simba, Beyonce´ Knowles-Carter as Simba’s sweet and sassy BFF Nala; Chiwetel Ejiofor as the villain Scar and James Earl Jones as Simba’s majestic father Mufasa.
In the Works
Living Single
In the early 90’s, our collective TV sets were tuned toLiving Single, which followed six professional Black singles living in brownstone Brooklyn. The sitcom wasFriendsbeforeFriends, and Queen Latifah — who costarred in the series as indie magazine publisher Khadijah James — confirmed in 2017 that she was working on aLiving Singlereboot. She wants original cast members Kim Fields, Kim Coles, Erika Alexander, John Henton and T.C. Carson to sign on. Fingers crossed!
Foxy Brown
Meagan Good has been tapped to step into Pam Grier’s bell-bottoms and star in a TV-series adaptation of the 1974 cult classic,Foxy Brown. Good and her hubby DeVon Franklin will be executive producers on the project, which is slated to stream on Hulu. No airdate has been announced, so stay tuned.
Photographs by Getty Images and Universal Pictures
