When Felicia Pride was still a young girl growing up in Baltimore, the TV writer would fittingly spend her days after school watching episodes of the hit sitcom “A Different World” — the HBCU-set series that brought Black higher learning to primetime television, and more importantly, changed Black pop culture forever.
Back then, Pride, like many young Black people, fell in love with the iconic ’80s series, its fictional Hillman College and its unforgettable cast of characters that have endured for generations. Never in her wildest dreams did she think she’d be helming a sequel that continues the beloved sitcom’s story decades after Hilman’s finest, Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy), moved on to a different world (pun intended).
But last week, after much anticipation, Netflix finally greenlit the series for a full 10-episode season, with Pride, for the first time in her career, serving as showrunner.
According to the streamer, the sequel will follow Whitley and Dwayne’s youngest child, Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), as she enters her freshman year at Hillman. She’ll be joined by fellow students Rashida (Alijah Kai), Kojo (Chibuikem Uche), Shaquille (Cornell Young IV), Amir (Jordan Aaron Hall) and Hazel (Kennedi Reece) as she steps out of her parents’ shadow to build a legacy of her own at their alma mater.
