Fox's Hit '90s Sitcom Martin Begins An Exciting New Era Next Week

Published Aug 29, 2026, 11:45 PM EDT Ben is a Senior Writer on the New TV team at Screen Rant. He graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a First Class B.A. Degree in English Literature and History. Born and raised in Ireland, Ben has always had a love for storytelling in all forms of media and operates multiple projects under the name Benjamin Blogs. Ben is a comic book writer and podcast host, in addition to his work as an entertainment journalist. He has worked as both a writer and editor for Screen Rant, Collider, and other media outlets across various departments, including features, news, reviews, and interviews. After nearly three decades of being off the air, Martin is set to expand its universe next week with a brand-new spin-off series, The Varnell Hill Show. Martin Lawrence achieved incredible success early in his career, in part thanks to his performance in the comedy series, Martin, where he portrayed a radio host by the name of Martin Payne. The show saw Lawrence play a variety of roles, while the character of Martin Payne struggled to balance his career, personal relationships, and all other aspects of day-to-day life. Of course, over the series run, Martin managed to successfully progress to become a TV host, and he married his long-time romantic interest, Gina Waters, as played by Tisha Campbell. However, things were anything but smooth sailing as Martin faced new challenges and struggles on a weekly basis. Among those challenges, Martin featured a special two-part episode where Martin Payne confronted a rival within the broadcast space by the name of Varnell Hill. How The Varnell Hill Show Connects To Martin As you can imagine, this two-part episode from the second season of the series left the audience with quite an impression, especially in regard to the person playing Martin's rival, Tommy Davidson. Now, Davidson reprises this fascinating character, and audiences will get to experience what life looks like on his side of the fence. The Varnell Hill Show is then connected to Martin thanks to the competitive egos of these two TV hosts, Martin Payne and Varnell Hill. And to build on that animosity, Martin Lawrence is set to return in this series in a guest capacity, which makes sense, since Lawrence is also credited as an executive producer on the show. But, outside of the guest appearances from Lawrence, this show will largely shift the focus away to a familiar format with a new cast of characters. Like Martin Payne, Varnell will deal with the complexities of his life as a host and get the opportunity to sit down with prominent individuals throughout the run of his show. However, this series is obviously in a modern setting, which means Varnell is also facing a rapidly changing landscape for traditional TV formats like the late-night hosted show. In this way, The Varnell Hill Show will showcase some of the serious challenges that the character is facing, and how he responds to a vastly different landscape in the industry that he has spent decades focusing on. The Varnell Hill Show Is The Second Planned Martin Spinoff While The Varnell Hill Show will absolutely serve as an expansion to the original series, and the show begins airing from next week, it is not the first project that was discussed as a way to revive the franchise. Previously, Martin Lawrence was announced to be an executive producer on another series, titled Young Martin, which would serve as a more dramatic and gritty prequel about Martin's experiences before landing a job in radio. Unfortunately, there have been precious few updates about this series, though there also haven't been any confirmations to suggest that the show is no longer in the works. With that, the prequel is expected to follow the more grounded approach similar to how the Bel-Air series built on the mythology of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which still revives the earlier series while also updating things and incorporating details that young audiences care about now. Hopefully, Young Martin eventually gets the chance to expand the world of these stories further, and from there, projects like The Varnell Hill Show have the opportunity to grow larger. But in the meantime, maybe it's time to revisit an old classic series and reconnect with characters from the series, Martin. Release Date September 1, 2026 Network Paramount+ Cast Tommy Davidson Varnell Hill