‘Black-ish’ Eyes Prequel Series Centered On Teen Rainbow

The current fifth season of Black-ish will include a Rainbow-centric episode. The episode, which is already casting to film in March, will feature flashbacks to a teen version of Tracee Ellis Ross’ character of Rainbow. No deals are done but I hear the episode could become a backdoor pilot for a potential prequel series. Black-ish executive producer Peter Saji is in talks to pen the episode, set in the 1980s-90s, which will revolve around Rainbow’s growing up.

If deals make and the episode indeed becomes a planted spinoff, Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is expected to be an executive producer on the potential prequel but likely won’t have day-to-day creative involvement given his overall deal commitment to Netflix.

Black-ish already spawned one successful spinoff, Freeform’s Grown-ish, which originated as a backdoor pilot episode of the mothership series featuring Yara Shahidi’s character, Zoey Johnson, as she goes to college

Created and executive produced by Barris, the praised single-camera comedy Black-ish centers on an affluent African-American family struggling to raise their kids in the largely white culture of well-to-do suburbia.

The series stars Anthony Anderson as Dre, Ross as Rainbow, Marcus Scribner as Andre Jr., Miles Brown as Jack, Marsai Martin as Diane, Jenifer Lewis as Ruby, Laurence Fishburne as Pops, Peter Mackenzie as Mr. Stevens and Deon Cole as Charlie Telphy.

The show has received multiple awards and nominations including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for Ross, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, and a TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Comedy.

Grown-ish, also created by Barris, which follows the Johnsons’ eldest daughter Zoey (Shahidi) as she begins her journey to adulthood, was recently renewed by ABC sibling network Freeform for a third season.