Black-ish fans are about to see a whole lot more of Yara Shahidi’s Zoey.
Earlier this year, Deadline reported that ABC is developing a spin-off that will follow the oldest Johnson kid, Zoey to college. (Sound familiar?) Apparently, Black-ish’s former showrunner Larry Wilmore got the idea for the spin-off and brought it to series creator Kenya Barris’ attention.
The hilarious show follows the upper-middle class Johnsons, advertising executive Dre (Anthony Anderson) and his doctor wife Bow (Tracee Ellis Ross), who are doing their best to raise their four wildly different millennial children, Zoey, Junior, Diane and Jack in Los Angeles. Interference from Dre’s parents Pops (Laurence Fishburne) and Ruby (Jenifer Lewis) makes for even further amusing hijinks on the series.
Still, as the series ages, the characters must evolve. As a result, it looks like we’ll be seeing Zoey at college a lot sooner than we thought. The 17-year old is currently nearing the end of her senior year, and Black-ish will reportedly introduce Zoey’s college journey in a backdoor pilot episode airing before this year’s season finale.
TV Line is reporting that Suburgatory alum Chris Parnell and Veep’s Matt Walsh are set to play admins at the college, while American Crime and Burning Sands actor Trevor Jackson will play a freshman at Zoey’s future school. If the spin-off is indeed greenlit, we could be seeing Parnell and Jackson in full-time roles. We’re crossing our fingers for this one because it could be a game-changer. We wonder what it’ll be called.
Could Zoey’s spin-off be the 21st-century version of A Different World? We certainly think it has potential.
