Disney Delays Will Smith's New National Geographic Series
Disney has reportedly delayed production of Pole to Pole, a nature docu-series starring Will Smith for National Geographic. Citing a source with knowledge of the company's plans, Bloomberg reports The Walt Disney Company has pushed back production until the fall. Documenting Smith's visits to the North and South Poles, Pople to Pole was set to begin filming in three weeks. Smith's Westbrook Studios, which the actor co-founded with wife Jada Pinkett Smith, signed a five-year first-look deal for unscripted content with Disney's Nat Geo in 2021 and has so far produced the Smith-hosted One Strange Rock and Disney+'s Welcome to Earth.
Pole to Pole is the latest Smith-starring project put on the backburner in the wake of Smith smacking presenter Chris Rock live on air at the 94th Academy Awards. Minutes before he won his first Best Actor Oscar for King Richard, Smith walked on stage and slapped Rock over a "G.I. Jane 2" joke the comedian made about Pinkett Smith's shaved head.
Just days after the Smith-Rock Oscars incident, streamer Netflix backed away from Fast and Loose, a crime drama with Smith attached to star. That casualty came after Sony Pictures reportedly pressed "pause" on a Bad Boys 4, which was in active development with 40 script pages turned in to Smith before his Oscars controversy.
Also in jeopardy is a planned biopic about the blockbuster actor and rapper, best known for roles in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Independence Day, and the Men in Black franchise. Earlier this month, The Sun reported Netflix and Apple TV+ "quietly removed their bids" to back the project, and Rolling Stone reported movement had already stalled at Warner Bros. on a potential Suicide Squad spinoff starring Smith's DC Comics assassin Deadshot.
According to Bloomberg's Lucas Shaw, Netflix has abandoned plans for Bright 2, a sequel to director David Ayer's fantasy-action film that starred Smith and Joel Edgerton. That cancellation was reportedly "unrelated" to Smith's Oscars outburst.
"He feels terrible and is trying not to panic, but seeing his roles put on ice has been a hugely bitter pill to swallow," a source close to the Smiths told Us Weekly in the fallout of the Oscars. "His biggest fear is that he's in the process of being fully canceled, and there's nothing he can really do about it except sit back, suck up his punishment like a man and try to atone however he can."
Smith issued a public apology via Instagram as he faced disciplinary action over what the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences condemned as "a deeply shocking, traumatic event to witness in-person and on television." On April 8, the AMPAS' Board of Governors decided to ban Smith from the Academy Awards and Academy events for ten years.