‘SNOWFALL’ ISN’T OVER: WANDA & LEON RETURN IN FX’S ‘THE DROP: A SNOWFALL SAGA’ AS THE STORY ENTERS A NEW ERA

More than three years after FX’s acclaimed crime drama came to an end, Wanda Bell and Leon Simmons are returning to Los Angeles for an entirely new chapter in The Drop: A Snowfall Saga. Gail Bean and Isaiah John reprise their fan-favorite roles in the upcoming FX series, which is set to premiere September 8.

But The Drop isn’t simply attempting to recreate Snowfall.

The new series moves the story forward into 1990s Los Angeles, where Wanda and Leon are fighting to reinvent themselves as the city around them enters another cultural transformation. The crack epidemic that shaped much of the original series remains part of their history, but a new force is beginning to reshape Los Angeles: West Coast hip-hop.

FX has fittingly teased the transition with the line, “From the dope game to the rap game.”

That evolution gives The Drop an opportunity to explore another pivotal period in Black Los Angeles history.

Snowfall, co-created by the late filmmaker John Singleton, spent six seasons examining the rise of crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles and the devastating consequences that followed. At the center of the original story was Franklin Saint, played by Damson Idris, whose transformation from ambitious young hustler to powerful drug kingpin became one of television’s most compelling character arcs.

Wanda and Leon, however, experienced that world from a different perspective.

Audiences watched Wanda battle addiction before eventually rebuilding her life, while Leon evolved from one of Franklin’s closest friends and soldiers into a man increasingly forced to confront the consequences of the world they helped create.

Now, The Drop gives both characters the opportunity to move beyond survival.

According to FX, Wanda is looking toward the emerging music industry as a possible path forward, while Leon attempts to build a different future for himself. Their reinvention unfolds as hip-hop begins growing into an increasingly powerful cultural and commercial force in Los Angeles.

That backdrop could make the spinoff particularly interesting.

The rise of West Coast rap wasn’t simply a musical movement. Hip-hop became a vehicle for documenting communities, frustrations, police tensions, ambition, fashion and street culture while simultaneously creating an entirely new generation of Black entrepreneurs and stars.

For characters like Wanda and Leon — people who have already witnessed what money, power and desperation can do to a community — entering this new era presents another complicated question:

What happens when the streets find a new business?

The newly released official trailer makes it clear that leaving the past behind won’t necessarily be easy. The music business may offer new opportunities, but ambition, loyalty, money and the politics of Los Angeles remain very much in play.

The series also expands beyond its returning Snowfall favorites with a new ensemble that includes Asante Blackk, Peyton Alex Smith and Simmie Sims III, among others, as the saga introduces a new generation of characters into its evolving Los Angeles landscape.

And that’s ultimately what could separate The Drop from a traditional television spinoff.

Rather than trying to find another Franklin Saint, the series has an opportunity to examine what came after the world Snowfall documented — and how another cultural movement emerged from many of those same neighborhoods.

Snowfall may have ended.

But the story of Los Angeles was far from finished.

FX’s The Drop: A Snowfall Saga premieres September 8 on FX, with streaming on Hulu.

The Prince Report