Fans of the 1992 romantic comedy “Boomerang” who are looking to see the original film’s cast appear on BET’s upcoming sequel series shouldn’t hold their breath.
Well, no, you might see executive producer Halle Berry reprising her role. But as far as everyone else goes? We’ll have to wait and see, because Berry hasn’t asked her former co-stars to appear on Lena Waithe’s updated take on “Boomerang.”
“You might see me at some point,” Berry told reporters during the Television Critics Association press tour Monday, with a little laugh.
“I can’t speak for anybody else from the cast, I can only speak for myself,” she said. “And I’m so proud of the show. And you might she me, you might see me — for sure.”
Executive produced by “The Chi” creator Waithe and Berry, the series will follow “Everybody Hates Chris” alum Tequan Richmond and his “All Night” co-star Tetona Jackson, as the son and daughter, respectively, of the characters played by Eddie Murphy and Robin Givens in the ’90s flick, as they try to step out of their parents’ shadows and make a legacy of their own.
Along with Murphy, Givens and Berry, the original film’s cast included David Alan Grier, Martin Lawrence, Grace Jones, Geoffrey Holder, Eartha Kitt, Chris Rock, Tisha Campbell-Martin, and Reginald Hudlin, among many others.
Berry says she hasn’t spoken to anyone else from the group about coming back, telling reporters: “Lena came to me, this was her passion, she just was– she said, ‘I gotta do this and I really wanna team up with you, please.’… And she said, ‘I have to bring a modern version of this story to our people. Please do this with me.’ So that’s all I know. I didn’t speak to anybody else. Lena came to me with her art, her passion, and a real desire to do it and I said yes before knowing how any of my other co-stars felt about this.”
Waithe, who co-wrote the pilot with executive producer/showrunner Ben Cory Jones, knows that “a lot of people are definitely asking” if the OG cast will return.
“But I always tell people, ‘If you wanna see Grace Jones, and Eartha [Kitt] — may she rest — and Halle and Eddie and Robin, go watch the movie,” she said. “If you wanna see some fresh faces and a new take on the movie, come watch the show.”
Waithe says she hopes the “Boomerang” cast will “see it and they’ll say, ‘Oh, this is so dope. I’m gonna make sure I’m on Season 2.’”
“That’s a goal,” she continued. “I was like, ‘I wanna make something so good that Eddie is like, ‘Alright, yeah, that’s lit, that’s lit.’ But I hope he knows that to me it’s, like, we wanted to be– we wanted LeBron James to be to the series what Michael Jordan is to the movie. You know what I’m saying? It’s like, we may not be that, but you can see in the way we move, in the way we shoot, in the way we run, we’re very inspired by those that came before us.”
“And the reason why all of us are standing tall is because we’re standing on Eddie’s shoulders, Reginald Hudlin’s shoulders, Robin Givens’ shoulders, Halle Berry’s shoulders, Martin, David Alan Grier, Chris Rock, Eartha Kitt, Grace Jones — we’re standing on their shoulders,” she added. “‘Cause they really stood up, they did something that nobody else was doing and we all were little tykes watching it going, ‘Oh, we wanna be like that when we get older.’”
Waite says “we have that swag and that confidence because they showed us how to walk.”
“Boomerang” premieres Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 10/9c on BET.