Kenya Barris wasn’t the first high-profile showrunner to strike up a multimillion dollar deal with Netflix , but he was the first notable creator to walk away.
Barris’ Netflix run got off to a rocky start with the sitcom “#blackAF,” which became one of the streamer’s more controversial releases and ignited debates over the show’s representation.
“I just don’t know that my voice is Netflix’s voice,” Barris said.
Ironically, as those same sources point out, he seemed to have no trouble churning out big fat commercial films, including ‘Shaft,’ ‘Barbershop,’ and the Eddie Murphy hit ‘Coming 2 America’ for Amazon.
According to THR, there were no’s at Netflix that Barris “had trouble swallowing.” One project was an adaptation of Danzy Senna’s novel “New People,” which Barris bought the rights to and wrote the script for.
“They were like, ‘We don’t get this,’ and I’m like, ‘I promise you, it’s a thing,’” Barris said.
While Barris’ Netflix deal is over, he’ll continue to work on the projects that were in development at the streaming giant before his departure was finalized.