Warning! SPOILERS for Bel-Air season 1.
Bel-Air’s season 1 finale leaves an important question for Will unanswered but hints at repeating Fresh Prince season 4’s Philadelphia twist. The end of Bel-Air season 1 concludes with Will upset with all of his parental figures, including Will's dad, Lou, for disappointing him again and his mother, Aunt Viv, and Uncle Phil for lying to him about Lou all along. Will’s anger leads him to overlook the Los Angeles skyline pondering the answer to one question: will he stay in Bel-Air or move back home to Philadelphia?
While Fresh Prince’s story was predominantly confined to its home base in Los Angeles, with only a few episodes taking the family to outside locations or even Will’s home in Philly, Bel-Air has more freedom in how it explores the dramatic tale. A significant portion of the reboot’s premiere took place in West Philadelphia, giving a novel glimpse at what Will’s life was truly like before a fight landed him in the mansions of Bel-Air. As such, it’s not surprising that Bel-Air's season 1 finale is repeating the circumstances of a major decision Will had to make at the end of Fresh Prince season 4 in terms of which city he wanted to call home.
Fresh Prince’s season 4 finale saw Will and the Banks family take a trip to Philadelphia, reuniting Will with his old friends and even confronting Omar, the man with which he fought ahead of the pilot episode. By the twist ending of Fresh Prince season 4’s finale, Will chooses to stay in Philadelphia and officially move back home. While Bel-Air’s season 1 finale ends without Will making a decision, the series hints that he may choose to move back to Philadelphia, at least temporarily, thus repeating Fresh Prince’s notable Philly twist.
However, Fresh Prince’s Will twist in which he moves back to Philadelphia was originally stipulated by the notion that the episode would be the official series finale. As such, Will’s decision to stay in Philadelphia was quite short-lived – the opening scene of Fresh Prince’s season 5 premiere saw a meta moment in which NBC executives forced Will to move back to Bel-Air in order to continue the show. Fresh Prince seasons 5 and 6 then saw Will continue to live in Bel-Air, with Will being the only character to remain in California after the series finale. Since the Bel-Air reboot will still need the bulk of the drama to take place in the title location, if Will decides to move back to Philly as he did at the end of Fresh Prince season 4, he’ll inevitably return to California in Bel-Air season 2.
The circumstances for Will’s decision to move back to Philadelphia in Fresh Prince versus in Bel-Air are also very different. Will’s dilemma in Bel-Air’s season 1 ending is influenced by the betrayal he feels from his family ever since moving away, even telling Jazz that, as he predicted in the premiere, Bel-Air was trying to change him. In Fresh Prince, Will already realized that not only had he changed over the years, but West Philly and his old neighborhood had as well. Fresh Prince’s Will decided to stay after learning that he needed to grow up, truly missed his life in West Philadelphia and was ready to be back with his mother after all of the maturing he did in California. On the other hand, Bel-Air’s Will is trying to stop any changes before real progress has been made, which is even more proof that if he chooses to return to Philadelphia, it’ll only be a matter of time before he’s back in Los Angeles again.