‘Bel-Air’ Cast, Writers Credit “Interesting” Fan Response for Carlton’s Season 2 Turnaround from Xanax-Snorting Villain

The Tom Jones soundtrack. The Macauley Culkin Halloween costume. The surprisingly competent striptease. The f’ing Carlton! The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s scene-stealer has a dance named after him that persists to this day. Not even Steve Urkel can make that claim (and he really tried). Everybody loves Carlton Banks — as played by Alfonso Ribeiro in the ’90s. The Carlton Banks that audiences met when the dramatic reboot Bel-Air premiered on Peacock last year? The response to Olly Sholotan’s Carlton was, as Bel-Air showrunner Carla Banks Waddles told Decider, “interesting.”

“People love to hate Carlton in Season 1,” explained Waddles. “Carlton was a character last season that was talked about a lot. People were kind of like, ‘I’m not sure I like this new Carlton’ [or] ‘I love this new Carlton.’” Audiences had every reason to be unsure about the drama’s take on Tom Jones’ #1 fan. The new Carlton was more stuck up, snorted Xanax, and aggressively shoved Will (Jabari Banks) into a pool in the first episode; Will, mind you, cannot swim. A Carlton with a drug problem and anxiety issues who downright loathes the series lead — whose idea was this, anyway?

As Olly Sholotan told Decider, Carlton: The X-Treme was a flavor crafted by himself and series creator Morgan Cooper. “From the onset Morgan Cooper, our incredible creator, he very much from day one was like, ‘Hey, this is your role. Do what you want with it,’” said Sholotan. “I remember on my audition packet, one of the biggest notes in bright red was, ‘this is not the sitcom.’”

All the while, Cooper wasn’t sweating the internet’s “interesting” response to New Carlton. This was all part of the plan, with inspiration stretching all the way back to the original Carlton. “[Carlton is] around people who may not necessarily respect [his Blackness],” said Cooper in our interview. “That feeds into his anxiety of wanting to be accepted, wanting to be liked, wanting to achieve all of his goals — but at the same time, at what cost? Does it mean he has to diminish his humanity, his Blackness in order to achieve those things? That’s really hard, particularly on a 17-year-old Black boy.” And as Cooper explained, the arrival of his cousin Will in Season 1 “really puts up a mirror to a lot of these insecurities that Carlton has been grappling with.”

With Cooper’s take on Carlton on his mind, Sholotan didn’t hold back with his performance. “[Cooper’s concept] very much gave me the freedom to sort of go balls to the wall with it,” said Sholotan. “And I think that it was a big swing, and I think we hit big [laughs].”

Now Bel-Air was faced with a problem: how do you outdo such a big swing in Season 2? Instead of trying to top it, showrunner Carla Banks Waddles sought to enrich the character that already existed by flipping the script in one way. “We were missing out on the bromance, what we remember Will and Carlton to be,” explained Waddles. “We let [their dynamic] be a slow burn in Season 1 and we got to a good place [in the season finale] where Carlton felt like, ‘I miss Will. I need Will in my life’… People were really wanting us to dig into that relationship.”

Enter: Carlton 2.0 2.0 in the Season 2 premiere, picking Will up at Jazz’s for their daily ride to school. Things are good — so good that Carlton and Will have a handshake. “The dynamic has shifted. I love it,” Jabari Banks told Decider.

After a season of playing Will as Carlton’s enemy, the two have skipped the frenemy phase and are now legit friends. This was a relief to Banks, who said, “The Will and Carlton camaraderie is something that is my absolute favorite thing about the original [show]… These two couldn’t be more different than each other. Two different lifestyles, two different upbringings, two different walks, and so to see that they can love each other and have that brotherhood? It’s so dope to see. And it’s so easy with Olly. He’s such an amazing actor.”

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But just because Carlton and Will are cousins and bros now doesn’t mean there won’t be friction between them. “[The writers are] able to use Will as an interesting be-careful-what-you-ask-for friendship, knowing how Will moves through this world and Bel Air,” said Waddles. “He’s very charismatic. He gets along with people. People love him. He’s accepted in so many different spaces where Carlton is a little more anxious about, so asking someone like Will to be your wing man pushes you in a way that can make you uncomfortable. And even though Will is doing it for Carlton’s good, he’s sort of dragging him into things that he’s not really ready for, which triggers anxiety and panic attacks. And so it just felt like an organic way to sort of tell that story for Carlton.”

While Carlton may not be snorting Xanax anymore, he is still grappling with anxiety and the medication he takes to treat it. It was important to Waddles that this story continue in Season 2. “We knew that we didn’t want to just drop it. It didn’t feel real to just be like, ‘Okay, he’s all better now.’” That, in turn, leads to a number of scenes at the beginning of Season 2 that put Sholotan and his TV dad, Adrian Holmes, through it.

“The scenes [between Phil and Carlton about his anxiety] are so beautifully written,” said Holmes. “Carla and the writing team are just so amazing at what they do. So for us as actors, just preparing [for a scene] is a joy. We say, ‘You can put words in my mouth any day Carla,’ because she’s just amazing. It makes it easier, even when the subject is so heavy —”

“Even though some of those scenes are so hard,” added Sholotan.

“But we know that [Carlton’s anxiety storyline is] important and it’s necessary because there are people out there that can identify and can relate,” continued Holmes. “There are nuggets in every episode that you can take home with you and it can help you grow.”

All of this hard work, this craft and creativity, hopefully leads to a Carlton that viewers will love to love. But even if some viewers still love to hate the new new Carlton, Sholotan remains pleased with his work. “I’m really, really proud of the character that I’ve been able to build,” said Sholotan with a smile. “People do call me Carlton on the street, which I’m like, ‘Oh wow! How did that happen?’” As a wise man once sang, “It’s not unusual to be loved by anyone…”

New episodes of Bel-Air Season 2 premiere on Peacock on Thursdays.