Debbie Allen spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about the roadblock to bringing back A Different World.
The 71-year-old actress, dancer and choreographer said Bill Cosby‘s attachment to the original sitcom series is the roadblock that prevents a reboot from happening any time soon.
“We’ve been wanting to do it forever. Honestly, it’s strapped behind the whole situation with Mr. [Bill] Cosby — which is unfortunate,” she said. “But the show was his idea. There’s a studio and network situation where they can’t allow any money to go into his company. I said, ‘Can’t we contribute it to schools or something?’ But you can’t take somebody’s name off of a show. A Different World needs to have a second life, and we know how to do it. I was so close to doing it with Issa Rae.”
She continued: “We were going to do it again, yeah. Then the question was posed, ‘Will he take his name off of it?’ And that’s not going to happen. It’s sad because we need it right now.”
Cosby, 83, is currently serving 3–10 years in state prison in Pennsylvania on aggravated sex assault charges.
