Issa Reunion! What Happened When Will Smith And The Old Aunt Viv Finally Met Up?

Now, we definitely didn’t have a Will Smith and Janet Hubert reconciliation on our 2020 bingo card, but alas this year is constantly full of surprises. OG Aunt Viv has practically made a second career out of her beef with Big Willie, but it looks like the two have finally buried the decades old hatchet!

The news came out of nowhere. Just a scroll through the IG timeline last night and BAM — there it was. Smith had posted a photo with the cast of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the show that launched his career and to announce that they would being filming a reunion special for HBO Max. And then, if you hit the swipe another photo of Will laughing with Janet slapped you in the face.

View this post on Instagram

Today is exactly 30 YEARS since The @FreshPrince of Bel-Air debuted! So we’re doin’ something for y’all… a for real Banks Family Reunion is comin’ soon to @HBOmax! RIP James. #FreshPrince30th

A post shared by Will Smith (@willsmith) on Sep 10, 2020 at 4:30pm PDT

Hubert played Smith’s aunt, Vivian Banks, on the Fresh Prince for the first three seasons of the hit sit-com. However, she was unceremoniously dismiss and replaced with Daphne Maxwell Reid for the final three seasons. The reason? A long-brewing beef with Will in which the two feud over multiple things including colorism and cast raises. In recent years, Hubert continued to fuel the discord — After Alfonso Riberio, who played cousin Carlton, posted this reunion shot, Hubert went to Facebook to say there would “never be a true reunion of the Fresh Prince” because she has no interest in seeing any of those people again.

View this post on Instagram

Always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family. Wishing that James Avery was still with us to make this complete.

A post shared by Alfonso Ribeiro (@therealalfonsoribeiro) on Mar 27, 2017 at 5:27pm PDT

Thankfully, it looks like her heart has softened, at least a bit. It was announced that Smith surprised the rest of the cast while filming the reunion special by revealing that he filmed a separate chat with old school Aunt Viv. The experience was described as “an emotional reunion and a candid conversation” 27 years in the making.

The Fresh Prince reunion special is expected to debut sometime around Thanksgiving.