Class will be back in session at Hillman College in the fall.
Netflix announced Wednesday that A Different World, a sequel to the 1987-93 NBC sitcom centered on students at an HBCU, will premiere in the fall. Several members of the original cast will reprise their roles alongside a new group of actors playing Hillman students, and the show’s creative team also includes alumni of the original.
Along with the premiere announcement for A Different World, Netflix announced a few new series orders at is upfront: The Retrievals from Maid and Sirens creator Molly Smith Metzler; Barbaric, based on the comic book by Michael Moreci and Nathan Gooden; Myron Bolitar, from David E. Kelley and author Harlan Coben; and teen drama Calabasas, from Bridgerton creator Chris Van Dusen and the L.A. exurb’s most famous resident, Kim Kardashian.
A Different World centers on Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), the youngest child of Whitley (Jasmine Guy) and Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) who is beginning her first year at Hillman, her parents’ alma mater. “She finds the shadow of her parents difficult to escape as she sets out to build her own legacy, while having the time of her life, alongside a whole new generation of Hillman’s best and brightest,” the show’s logline reads.
Alijah Kai, Cornell Young IV, Jordan Aaron Hall, Kennedi Reece and Chibuikem Uche also star, along with original series alums Guy, Hardison, Darryl M. Bell and Cree Summer. The new cast also includes Vincent Jamal Hooper, Elijah J. Roberts, Renee Harrison, Famecia Ward, Dasan Frazier, Tichina Arnold, Joshua Suiter, Raven Goodwin, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Norman Nixon Jr. Also reprising their prior roles are Karen Malina White, Ajai Sanders, Dawnn Lewis, Glynn Turman, Charnele Brown, Jenifer Lewis and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Netflix picked up the series in 2025 and wrapped filming on the 10-episode season in April. Felicia Pride (Bel-Air, Grey’s Anatomy) serves as showrunner and executive produces with A Different World alums Debbie Allen (who directed most of the original series and helmed three episodes of the new season), Reggie Rock Bythewood, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Tom Werner. Mandy Summers also exec produces.
