Yara Shahidi (Disney/ABCTelevision Group Flickr)
The creators behind ABC’s hit sitcom ‘Black-ish’ are in the very early stages of making a spinoff comedy centering on Yara Shahidi’s character Zoey Johnson as she heads to college.
As part of the sitcom about a Black patriarch and his family dealing with being Black in America, Deadline reported the spinoff could be launched as a backdoor pilot. As such, the first episode of the untitled Shahidi show may be included as part of the current “black-ish” season. No other details about the show’s content are known at this time.
ABC is talking with “Black-ish” creator and executive producer Kenya Barris and Larry Wilmore, who served as executive producer and showrunner before exiting the positions to take on “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore” in 2014. That show was canceled in August and in November, Wilmore inked an overall development deal with ABC Studios. Working in a managing capacity, the comedian was already pondering creating a college comedy series, so the idea was combined with Shahidi’s headlining series.
