Barbershop Is Back: Watch the First Teaser Trailer for Prime Video’s New Series
Calvin’s is back open for business but there are plenty of new faces behind the chairs.
Prime Video has dropped the first teaser for its upcoming Barbershop series, bringing the beloved Chicago barbershop back to television with a new generation ready to argue, laugh, cut hair and offer opinions nobody necessarily asked for.
Jermaine Fowler leads the series as Travis “Trav” Porter, a young barber trying to honor his family’s legacy by finding his place at Calvin’s. The shop may look familiar, but Trav is walking into a version of Chicago and a group of barbers, that has changed considerably from the world audiences first met more than two decades ago.
The teaser makes one thing very clear: Prime Video isn't trying to turn Barbershop into something unrecognizable. Calvin's is still the kind of place where getting a haircut is only part of the experience. The conversations are loud, everybody has an opinion and seemingly no topic is too dangerous to bring up once somebody gets comfortable in that chair. That's exactly the energy this franchise needs.
Joining Fowler is an impressive comedy-heavy ensemble that includes Brett Gray, Punkie Johnson, Roy Wood Jr., E.J. Bonilla, Bresha Webb, Bokeem Woodbine, Tiana Okoye and Langston Kerman. Guest stars will include Zack Fox, Ego Nwodim, Ziwe, Tituss Burgess, Diallo Riddle, Comedian CP, Devon Walker and Belmont Cameli.
While the cast is largely new, the series does have an important connection to the movie that started everything. Marshall Todd, who co-wrote the original 2002 Barbershop, returns as a writer and co-showrunner alongside Max Searle. That should help preserve some of the franchise's identity while allowing the new series to create its own characters and stories.
The original Barbershop, starring Ice Cube as Calvin Palmer Jr., turned one Chicago neighborhood barbershop into the center of an entire franchise. The first movie arrived in 2002 and was followed by Barbershop 2: Back in Business, the spinoff Beauty Shop and 2016's Barbershop: The Next Cut. There was even a previous television adaptation, Barbershop: The Series, which aired on Showtime in 2005.
More than twenty years later, Prime Video is taking another swing at expanding that world for television. And going the series route actually makes plenty of sense. The movies were never just about whatever larger story was happening around Calvin. Some of their best moments came from people sitting around the shop talking, sometimes making a point, sometimes being completely ridiculous and occasionally starting an argument that probably should have stayed inside their head.
A television series has much more room to live inside that environment.
There is one obvious question hanging over the new show, though: how much of the original Barbershop world will eventually show up? The teaser is focused firmly on Fowler and the new ensemble rather than leaning on appearances from Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer or other familiar franchise stars. That isn't necessarily a bad thing. If Prime Video wants this version to last, these characters need to become more than placeholders waiting for someone from the movies to walk through the door.
Still, let's not pretend audiences aren't going to lose it if Calvin or Eddie suddenly appears. For now, the new crew gets the shop to themselves.
All eight episodes of Barbershop premiere February 10, 2027, exclusively on Prime Video. If the first teaser is any indication, the chairs may have some new occupants, but Calvin's still looks like the kind of place where you can get a fresh cut and accidentally find yourself in a 30-minute debate before you leave.
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