The Nanny Reboot Wants A Surprising Star To Replace Fran Drescher
You'll never guess who's replacing Fran Drescher in The Nanny reboot!
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The showrunner for The Nanny, one of the most enduring sitcoms of the ’90s, has been in talks of bringing about The Nanny reboot for over three years. The show aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999, and it starred Fran Drescher as Fran Fine, who becomes a nanny to three children of New York and British high society at the behest of a widowed Broadway producer, which draws from Drescher’s own personal experiences. In terms of the reboot, she doesn’t want to reprise the role of the nanny; she and series co-creator and showrunner have someone unexpected in mind.
Grammy Award-winning rapper and actress Cardi B has been tapped to fill in Fran Drescher’s shoes in The Nanny reboot. According to ScreenRant, the “WAP” performer was linked back to the project in 2018, with Drescher suggesting that she take over as the titular lead and the two engaging in conversations about the reboot online. While she’s focused on producing a Broadway musical adaptation of The Nanny, series co-creator and showrunner Peter Marc Jacobson shared some insight on what the reboot would look like with Cardi B in the spotlight.
In an interview with the Oh, Mr. Sheffield! podcast, Peter Marc Jacobson made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want The Nanny reboot to be a rehash of the original. Since Fran Fine was written as a fish out of water character because she was Jewish, like Fran Drescher, the main character should be written the same way, except with Cardi B front and center since she is a Black artist who stands out no matter what project she’s involved in, be it in music or film. In Jacobson’s mind, she’s just the person who fits the criteria of spontaneity.
“She wouldn’t have to be Jewish, right? She could be, you know, whatever. It doesn’t matter, because she’s a fish out of water. Cardi would be a fish out of water wherever you put her,” Peter Marc Jacobson said. “And a great fish. Because, you know, she is funny, and if she’s written for properly, [she] would be brilliant. And I mean, she’s funny on her own. I love her.”
Jacobson also said Cardi’s character would come into The Nanny Reboot out of a scenario where Fran Fine married a Black man — she married Maxwell Sheffield, a White man, in the original series — gave birth to a mixed-race child (Cardi B), and Fran was her mother. That reboot trope would only happen if Fran divorced from Maxwell, or if he died — neither of which happened in the original show.
Cardi B is no stranger to acting on the small screen — or the big screen, for that matter. Aside from her over-the-top music videos for songs like “Money” and “WAP” (with Megan Thee Stallion), Cardi started her acting career in 2017 as a guest star on Being Mary Jane, a BET series starring Gabrielle Union as the titular television news anchor who juggles the demands of her professional, personal, and romantic lives as she moves her way up the journalism world. In 2019, she starred as Diamond in the Jennifer Lopez-led film Hustlers, based on a true story of strippers stealing money from stock traders and CEOs visiting their New York City club during the Great Recession of 2007-08, which draws from her own experiences of stripping as a means of escaping poverty and domestic violence. She recently starred in F9 as Leysa, and will reprise her role in Fast & Furious 10 in 2023.
