*As “Bel-Air” returns for its fourth and final season, Olly Sholotan shines a spotlight on the full arc of Carlton Banks, a character whose complexity has evolved over four seasons.
“I think my favorite thing about Carlton is that this is a character that when fans first met him, they weren’t fans of him,” Sholotan said. “I think that was really important in the journey you see him go through throughout all four seasons. I think with this season, my main goal was just, I want everyone to understand the full picture of who Carlton is.”
Season four finds Carlton at a pivotal crossroads. With senior year in motion and college on the horizon, the character must reconcile his ambitions with his identity.
“Carlton is kind of at a crossroads right now. It’s a senior year. He’s getting ready to go off to college. I think the goal of college has played such a pivotal role in who he is and how he’s become who he is. Having to reconcile with having college define his identity is a really interesting journey for him. And by the end, he lands at a place that I know the fans are going to be really proud of him for.”
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Sholotan describes the challenge and reward of portraying Carlton’s vulnerability. “The most challenging thing is that as a cast, we are all too close. We like each other way too much. We have way too much fun on set. I think it’s really hard to pull up to set and have, you know, really dark, really sad scene while everyone else is partying… someone’s making a joke. It’s been a really interesting exercise for me as an artist in being able to sort of take the energy in the room and see it for what it is, but still be focused on my own thing.”
The rewards have been deeply personal. Sholotan recalls the impact of the character on viewers: “I’ve had people reach out and say that they’re on their journey of sobriety, and Carlton is a character that they resonate with and that has helped them. I’ve had young kids come up to me and say how Carlton taught them the importance of experiencing the width and breadth of their emotions. So that is ultimately why I do this. It’s to make people feel things and to give a real-world impact. So seeing that has just been so incredible.”
Fans can look forward to a final episode that encapsulates the emotional weight of the series. “The final episode of the series is the best episode of the whole show. Season four, episode 10, is a truly beautiful and layered episode. And because we shoot the show sequentially… we’re shooting that last episode as we were wrapping the season. And you can tell, you can see it on the screen. You see the love that we all have for each other.”
Sholotan also reflects on stepping into a role made iconic by Alfonso Ribeiro, noting how he approached Carlton in a modern context. “I always say that they’re both fundamentally the same character,” he explained.
“They’re both characters with ambition who hold themselves and the people around them to a very high standard and have had to sacrifice a lot of who they are for the environment that they’re in. I think the only real difference that I approached it with was here we are in, you know, 2025. What does this teenager genuinely look like? Once we don’t have to play things for laughs, when we really get to peel back the layers, what does this character really look like?”
Ultimately, Sholotan hopes fans will take away a message of self-love and growth. “I think Carlton was where he was at the beginning of the series because of a lack of love for his self. The thing that he finds throughout this journey, through his newfound brotherhood with Will, is learning to love himself. I hope people find the importance of self-love and self-acceptance. And with that comes the rest of everything else that you need to be happy in life.”
The final season of Peacock’s “Bel-Air” premieres Monday, November 24, with three episodes at launch. New episodes will continue to drop weekly on Mondays, including two episodes on December 1 and three episodes on December 8. The ensemble cast features Jabari Banks as Will, Adrian Holmes as Phillip Banks, Cassandra Freeman as Vivian Banks, Coco Jones as Hilary, Akira Akbar as Ashley, and Jimmy Akingbola as Geoffrey.
This closing chapter promises to deliver an emotionally charged conclusion as Carlton and the Banks family navigate identity, loyalty, and self-discovery one last time.
Watch our full conversation with Olly below.
*This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Peacock Releases Trailer for Fourth and Final Season of ‘Bel-Air’ | Watch
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