Netflix Drops ‘A Different World’ Trailer as Dwayne and Whitley’s Daughter Heads to Hillman

Maleah Joi Moon stars as Deborah Wayne in Netflix’s “A Different World” sequel, which follows the daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert during her freshman year at Hillman College. The series premieres Sept. 24.

Hillman has a new freshman class, but the Wayne family is back where it started.

Netflix released the full trailer Monday for its “A Different World” sequel series, showing Maleah Joi Moon as Deborah Wayne, the youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, trying to build a college life separate from two parents whose names already mean something on campus.

The 10-episode series premieres Sept. 24.

Kadeem Hardison returns as Dwayne and Jasmine Guy as Whitley, placing one of Black television’s best-known sitcom couples on the other side of the college experience this time around.

Their daughter is the student.

Netflix describes Deborah as free-spirited, well-intentioned and rebellious. She arrives at the fictional historically Black Hillman College for freshman year but quickly discovers that being the child of two prominent alumni makes it difficult to begin with a blank slate.

The trailer shows Dwayne and Whitley maintaining a close watch on her life, something Deborah appears determined to escape.

Her new circle includes roommate Rashida, played by Alijah Kai; Kojo, played by Chibuikem Uche; Amir, played by Jordan Aaron Hall; Hazel, played by Kennedi Reece; and Shaquille, played by Cornell Young IV.

Shaquille provides another direct link to the original cast.

He is the son of Ron Johnson, Dwayne’s longtime friend, with Darryl M. Bell returning as Ron. Deborah and Shaquille also arrive at Hillman with romantic history of their own.

The connections do not stop there.

 

Debbie Allen appears as Deborah’s academic adviser, Dr. Langhorne, while also serving as an executive producer and directing the premiere.

Allen’s involvement carries particular weight because she helped shape the original series after its first season. Netflix says she produced 122 episodes and directed 83 during its original run.

The trailer confirms an unusually deep roster of returning alumni.

Cree Summer is back as Freddie Brooks. Jenifer Lewis reprises Professor Davenport. Jada Pinkett Smith returns as Lena James.

Netflix has also announced Ajai Sanders as Gina Deveaux, Karen Malina White as Charmaine Brown, Charnele Brown as Dr. Kimberly Reese Boyer, Dawnn Lewis as Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor and Glynn Turman as Colonel Bradford Taylor.

That makes the project something more specific than a remake built around the title of an old sitcom.

This is a continuation of the original characters’ lives.

“It’s not just nostalgia. It’s like, ‘Where are they now?’” Allen told Netflix.

The distinction matters for a series whose original audience is being asked to watch Hillman through the eyes of its characters’ children.

“A Different World” ran for six seasons on NBC from 1987 to 1993. While the series was a comedy, it routinely moved beyond dating and dorm-room stories to address race, class, politics, HIV/AIDS, war and other subjects rarely centered in prime-time shows built around young Black characters at the time.

The sequel will consist of 10 single-camera half-hour episodes, according to Netflix. Felicia Pride, whose credits include “Bel-Air” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” serves as showrunner and executive producer. Original writers Gina Prince-Bythewood and Reggie Rock Bythewood also return as executive producers.

The new cast has some notable throwback connections of its own.

Cliff “Method Man” Smith plays Coach Coles, while Tichina Arnold appears as Darlene Duvall. Raven Goodwin is Dr. Brooklyn Boyer.

Netflix says the trailer also teases an appearance by R&B singer Summer Walker.

And the show has already recruited another major name from ’90s Black pop culture for its music.

Brandy recorded the new version of the “A Different World” opening theme. Original cast member Dawnn Lewis, who co-wrote the song, is also among the actors returning.

Aretha Franklin performed the best-known version during the original show’s run.

That gives Netflix a delicate assignment.

The original “A Different World” was not simply popular because viewers liked Hillman. For many Black viewers, it made an HBCU campus the center of a national network television series at a time when that environment was rarely depicted with that depth.

The sequel cannot recreate what that meant in 1987.

It can, however, answer a question the new trailer embraces directly: What does Hillman look like when the students who once had to figure out adulthood for themselves are now the parents, professors and alumni watching another generation do it?

We find out Sept. 24.

Prosecutors Tell Jury Keffe D Planned Tupac Shakur Shooting

​Duane "Keffe D" Davis, shown in this booking photograph provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Davis is standing trial on murder charges in connection with the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

The prosecution of the only man ever charged in Tupac Shakur’s killing opened Monday with an unusual concession.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis is not accused of firing the gun.

The state’s case is that he did not have to.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Binu Palal told jurors that Davis organized the Sept. 7, 1996, attack as retaliation after Shakur and members of his entourage beat Davis’ nephew, Orlando “Baby Lane” Anderson, at the MGM Grand.

“Duane Davis did not pull the trigger. But he did plan the shooting,” Palal told jurors.

Davis, 63, has pleaded not guilty to murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, further or assist a criminal gang. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors say Davis spent roughly two hours after the casino fight arranging revenge, obtained a gun and joined three other men in a white Cadillac searching for Shakur and Death Row Records co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight.

The Cadillac eventually pulled alongside the black BMW Knight was driving near the Las Vegas Strip. Shakur was struck multiple times and died six days later at 25. Knight survived with a minor wound.

Police have never established publicly which man in the Cadillac fired the shots.

That question is important historically, but it is not necessarily the question jurors have to answer.

Under Nevada law, prosecutors can seek a murder conviction against someone accused of knowingly taking part in the crime even if that person did not personally pull the trigger. Prosecutors contend Davis supplied the weapon and participated in planning and carrying out the attack.

Much of their case will depend on something investigators did not have in 1996: years of statements from Davis himself.

Davis has discussed the shooting in interviews, with investigators and in his 2019 memoir, “Compton Street Legend.” Prosecutors played portions of his recorded statements Monday and displayed the book for jurors.

In those accounts, Davis placed himself in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and described handing a gun to the men sitting behind him.

The other three men investigators have linked to the Cadillac — Anderson, Deandrae “Freaky” Smith and Terry “Bubble Up” Brown — have all died.

Davis is the only surviving alleged occupant.

That has made his public storytelling unusually important to a case that went nearly three decades without a prosecution. Police have said Davis was long considered a suspect but that his later statements helped revive an investigation that had gone cold.

Defense attorney Michael Sanft told jurors those statements are not the equivalent of proof.

Sanft challenged investigators for what he described as incomplete work and missing documentation and argued that Davis made claims in interviews and his book that law enforcement never independently verified.

“What they are telling you ... is really fiction,” Sanft told the jury.

Sanft’s name is confirmed by AP’s pretrial reporting, Las Vegas local coverage and court photography; a Reuters version of Monday’s story rendered the surname differently.

The first witnesses Monday took jurors back to the hours surrounding the shooting.

Retired Las Vegas police Officer Garry Dale testified that he and another officer stopped Knight’s BMW because it did not have a license plate. Shakur was riding with him.

The officers issued a warning and let them continue.

About 10 minutes later, Dale responded to the shooting and found emergency personnel removing Shakur from the BMW.

Former Las Vegas homicide detective Brent Becker described investigators’ difficulty getting witnesses to cooperate.

Ingrid Stokes, who was riding in another vehicle nearby, testified that she heard gunshots while stopped near Knight’s BMW. Her group sped away and nearly collided with a white four-door vehicle, she said.

Stokes testified that fear of retaliation and distrust of police made her reluctant to become involved.

Members of Shakur’s family, including his stepbrother Maurice “Mopreme” Shakur, were in the courtroom as prosecutors played Davis’ recorded statements.

The trial comes nearly 30 years after Shakur’s death and almost three years after a Clark County grand jury indicted Davis in 2023.

For decades, discussion of Shakur’s killing sprawled across books, documentaries, interviews and competing theories about who was responsible.

The criminal trial is considerably narrower.

Jurors do not have to resolve every question that has surrounded Tupac’s death since 1996.

They have to decide whether prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Davis participated in arranging the killing — or whether, as the defense argues, the state has built its case around stories that cannot be trusted.

Sean Combs Says Lil Rod Stole Footage Later Used in Netflix’s ‘The Reckoning’

Promotional artwork for Netflix’s four-part documentary series “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.” Sean “Diddy” Combs has filed counterclaims against producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, alleging Jones stole documentary footage that was later used in the series. Netflix and director Alexandria Stapleton have said the production obtained its footage legally and had the necessary rights. (Courtesy Netflix)

The Bad Boy founder alleges Rodney Jones took computer drives during a 2022 St. Barts trip and later sold the footage. Netflix says the documentary obtained its material legally and had the necessary rights.

Sean “Diddy” Combs spent months saying footage in Netflix’s documentary about him had been taken without permission.

He is now making that accusation in court — against the producer who sued him first.

Combs filed counterclaims Tuesday against Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones in their existing federal case in Manhattan, alleging Jones took computer drives containing footage intended for a Combs documentary and later sold or supplied material that appeared in Netflix’s “Sean Combs: The Reckoning,” the four-part series executiv ise produced by Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The filing does not amount to a new lawsuit against Netflix or Jackson. Jones is the opposing party in Combs’ counterclaims.

That distinction is especially important because the counterclaims allege Jones sold the footage to “Netflix, Inc., West Tower Road, LLC, and/or Curtis ‘50 Cent’ Jackson,” according to the filing. The wording does not establish that Jackson personally bought or received the material.

Combs’ account centers on a December 2022 trip to St. Barts, where Jones was among several people documenting Combs and his entourage.

According to the counterclaims, Jones was expected to stay in a staff villa but instead remained aboard a yacht, at times sleeping on couches. Combs alleges Jones later entered another videographer’s workspace while that person was away and took external computer drives containing footage being shot for Combs’ own documentary.

“Mr. Jones devised a plan to exploit the trust provided to him by Mr. Combs,” the filing alleges, according to TheWrap, which said it obtained and reviewed the counterclaims.

Combs further alleges that Jones copied footage without authorization, concealed the drives during the trip and eventually sold the material for use in “The Reckoning.” His attorneys say Combs did not learn about the alleged theft until December 2025, when material he believed belonged to his documentary appeared in the Netflix series.

The filing also alleges Jones remains in possession of the drives.

There is one notable point on which Netflix’s own account and Combs’ lawsuit overlap: Jones supplied footage to the filmmakers.

Netflix said in a December article about “The Reckoning” that Jones appeared in the fourth episode and provided filmmakers with footage from his 13 months working alongside Combs.

What the two sides sharply dispute is whether Jones had the right to provide it.

When Combs objected to the documentary before its release, director Alexandria Stapleton said the production had obtained the footage legally and had the necessary rights. Netflix also said footage used in the series had been legally obtained.

Neither statement resolves the ownership question now raised in court.

Combs’ counterclaims also accuse Jones of defamation over statements he made during his interview in “The Reckoning.” According to the filing, Combs disputes Jones’ assertions that Combs directed him to obtain sex workers and that Jones was unknowingly given drugs.

Those accusations echo claims Jones made when he sued Combs in February 2024.

Jones, a producer and videographer who worked extensively on Combs’ 2023 album “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” sought $30 million and alleged Combs sexually assaulted and harassed him, drugged him, threatened him and coerced him into encounters involving sex workers while Jones worked and traveled with him. Combs has denied Jones’ allegations.

Jones worked on nine tracks from “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” which was released Sept. 15, 2023.

His lawsuit has already been substantially narrowed, but some of its central claims remain alive.

In March 2025, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed Jones’ civil racketeering claims, finding that Jones had not adequately tied the alleged racketeering activity to his claimed business or property losses. Oetken also dismissed Jones’ breach-of-contract and emotional-distress claims.

The judge, however, declined to dismiss Jones’ sexual-assault claim against Combs. Oetken wrote that Jones had alleged sufficiently specific instances of unwanted sexual contact for the claim to proceed at that stage of the case.

Jones also was permitted to proceed with a federal trafficking claim against Combs and former chief of staff Kristina Khorram, as well as premises-liability claims. A trafficking claim against Combs Global was dismissed.

Those rulings were not findings that Jones’ allegations were true. On a motion to dismiss, the court was deciding whether the allegations were legally sufficient to continue toward later stages of the case.

Now Combs is asking the court to consider allegations of his own.

Combs is seeking damages under claims involving computer fraud, conversion, unfair competition, unjust enrichment and defamation. He also wants the computer drives and footage returned and any retained copies destroyed.

Jones had not publicly answered the counterclaims as of Thursday morning. 

Combs, 56, is serving a 50-month federal prison sentence at Fort Dix, New Jersey. A Manhattan jury last year convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges. His appeal was argued before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in April.

The civil dispute with Jones now runs in both directions.

Jones continues to accuse Combs of sexual misconduct and trafficking-related conduct that Combs denies. Combs, in turn, accuses Jones of stealing documentary material, distributing it without authorization and making defamatory statements.

And footage used to tell the story in a Netflix documentary is now at the center of a court fight over who owned it and who had the right to distribute it.