Jaden Smith Will Play A Young Kanye West In ‘Omniverse,’ Showtime’s New Alternate Reality Anthology Series
Showtime is getting into the anthology series game withOmniverse, a new half hour series “examining the many doors of perception.” And with such a trippy concept, it should come as no surprise that bothKanye WestandJaden Smithare involved, with Smith playing a younger version of West in an alternate reality. Buckle up, people – this one’s going to get weird.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, the first season of this anthology series “would explore ego through the alternative reality of West,” as played byAfter EarthandSkate Kitchenactor Jaden Smith. Kanye West is teaming up with Scooter Braun’s SB Projects, Westbrook Studios, and writerLee Sung Jinto bring this series to life, and if it ends up moving forward (right now a pilot script is in development), it will be West’s first major producing effort since last year’sHonor Upand 2014’sTop Five.
Last year, Smith spoke about how his relationship has changed with music contemporaries like Donald Glover, Drake, and West. “I always felt like Little Homie before and that allowed me in all of their circles,” he toldComplex. “But now that I’m on the charts next to them, I’m not really Little Homie anymore…it’s more like, ‘You can’t hang out with us anymore. We didn’t know you were making an album this whole time. We thought you were just Little Homie giving us free water and shit. You’re not really cool with us anymore.'”
Apparently Smith is still cool enough with West to work with him on a TV series, playing a younger version of him in an alternate reality where West didn’t become a rap superstar.
Lee Sung Jin, who has writing credits on HBO’s hilarious tech comedySilicon Valleyand the Netflix animated seriesTuca & Bertie, is writing this script. In a statement, Jin said:
“I’m honored and thrilled to be collaborating with everyone involved to present an alternate world through the eyes of a young man somewhere in the multiverse who happens to also be a Kanye West.Omniverseis not set in our world nor about our world’s Kanye West as we aim to add a new spin on alternate realities, consciousness, and push the limits of half hour narrative.”
If you look at theirrespectiveTwitteraccounts, you’ll see that Smith and West seem like they’re cut from the same cloth, so in casting terms, this seems like a pretty perfect fit. WhetherOmniversewill actually be worth tuning into, or if it’ll just be like those times your stoner friend corners you at a party to explain his ideas about philosophy, still remains to be seen.
