Kobe Bryant was set to film a cameo in the Saved by the Bell revival on Peacock, days before losing his life in January 2020, alongside his teenaged daughter and seven other passengers.
Josie Totah and Alycia Pascual-Peña revealed in an episode of Dare We Say that the late basketball legend was scheduled to film the pilot episode. “A wild tidbit that I don’t think a lot of people know, or it’s not important at all because obviously, we are the least of importance when it comes to this legend and his daughter’s passing, but we were actually supposed to film with Kobe two days after he died,” Totah said.
© GettyImagesAccording to Pascual-Peña, the energy on set “shifted greatly” when they had to film the pilot without Kobe. “I remember learning that he had passed through one of our best friends Anjelika Washington,” Pascual-Peña says. “She called me specifically because she knew that I’d been talking about it for a month with her — that I was so excited to meet Kobe on set, and I can’t believe that he was a fan of the first Saved by the Bell and that he was excited to be on the show.”
“It’s really beautiful and eye-opening to see how one person can. . . bring joy to so many people. Some people live their entire lives never seeing the full impact they had on the world until they pass,” she continues. “Thankfully, Kobe was given his flowers. That man was so loved and so respected.”
© GettyImagesKobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. According to TMZ Sports, smoke was seen from the aircraft amid foggy conditions before crashing into a hillside. The publication also reported that they were heading to basketball practice at Mamba Academy nearby Thousand Oaks.
The former Los Angeles Laker’s player retired in 2016 and is survived by his wife Vanessa and their three other daughters, Natalia, 18, Bianka, 4, and Capri, 2.
