The new Saved by the Bell reboot dropped on Peacock last month and has been praised for its humor as well as its social awareness. The show follows Daisy (Haskiri Velazquez) as she comes to Bayside High for the first time, but instead of breaking the fourth wall to hatch schemes like Zack Morris, she calls out the privileged students’ nonsense and pokes fun at the silly behavior that fueled the original show. The show’s representation is one of its strongest features, so in a recent interview with Velazquez, ComicBook.com talked to the star about the importance of showcasing young Latinx characters.
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“I can relate to Daisy’s character so much,” Velazquez shared. “She comes from a low-income household, she has a brother that she has to take care of, that she has to consider. And her mom is working all the hours of the day. I had parents who worked crazy hours of the day. My dad, until this day, wakes up at 4:00 AM then gets home about 7:00 PM just to provide. So, I grew up in a sense of every time I made a decision or wanted to do something, I always had them in the back of my mind because I never did anything for myself, if anything it was going to benefit us in a good way. But I can definitely relate to Daisy’s character and I think seeing how she’s constantly striving and constantly working to prove her worth is also something I related to.”
Velazquez continued, “So when I first read the breakdown, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh this is me.’ When I read Daisy’s character, I said, ‘Who is writing about my life,’ in a sense… I related to her so much, especially for being a young Latina. I never saw this kind of representation on TV. And I think it’s such a beautiful way to bring that kind of representation to a broad audience. Saved By the Bell has such a great fan base in so many areas and places in the world that it’s so beautiful for them to even consider a Latina that has the Zack Morris powers, to show a Latina in the light of being smart, ambitious of wanting more for herself and changing the school for the better.”
We asked Velazquez if there were any superhero characters she would like to play one day, and she brought up The CW’s upcoming Wonder Girl series.
“Well, I know that they’re trying to create this new Latinx superhero. Her name is Yara Flor, if I’m not mistaken, and I actually have her as my screensaver. And I would love to maybe bring a superhero like that to life. First of all, her costume is just badass. Who wouldn’t want to be seeing something like that. But yeah, I hear that there’s some kind of, in the DC comic world that they’re trying to bring this Latinx superhero to the screen with live-action. So I’d love to audition for them and see where she goes.”
Stay tuned for more from our interview with Haskiri Velazquez where she talks more about Saved by the Bell. There will also be upcoming content from our chats with Saved by the Bell‘s Dexter Darden, Mitchell Hoog, and Belmont Cameli!
The new Saved by the Bell is now available to stream on Peacock.
