TV's current era of revivals, reboots and continuations is going strong, but Netflix's Arrested Development has for years been a slight exception to tradition, since it hasn't had the ability to return for yearly seasons as most network series do. It's been nearly five years since the Bluth family last gave fans awkward moments to laugh at, but TV legend Henry Winkler has revealed the most specific time window yet for when the long-awaited Season 5 will finally arrive on Netflix. In his words:
That will be on midsummer. We just shot it before Christmas.
If Henry Winkler is to be believed, then we might all be fully versed in Arrested Development's fifth season by the time broadcast TV's fall shows are kicking off. (Which should be exciting for everyone, since Jason Bateman has totally gone on record calling this the best season yet.) But let's not forget that Winkler's Arrested Development character is the completely misinformed and unreliable attorney Barry Zuckercorn, so if this Season 5 information ends up not panning out, we'll go ahead and blame the Bluth's legal counsel for our dashed expectations.
To present that thought more seriously, Henry Winkler's claim to Decider is certainly worth celebrating, in that it's a more locked-down release window than the lack of info that Netflix has put forth. But because Winkler is neither a Netflix executive nor one of Arrested Development's primary stars, his words have to be taken with a grain of salt. Netflix famously keeps its release dates under wraps, especially for bigger projects like this. But perhaps Winkler's vague "midsummer" announcement didn't push anyone's buttons.
Now, did Henry Winkler talk about any of the plotlines that we can expect to see in Season 5? Nope, not a bit. We've heard in the past that it will be a murder-mystery whodunnit storyline involving the death of Liza Minelli's Lucille 2. And that some of the characters' past iterations could possibly be showing up more, which would have allowed for easier production shoots. But the most important part is that the central cast was able to film more scenes as a group this go-around, which was something that Season 4 lacked enough of. Something that every shows lacks enough of, really.
Fans of the Russo brothers work on Arrested Development may have noticed a particular easter egg within Hollywood's current mega-blockbuster Avengers: Infinity War. We shouldn't expect to see those universes colliding in any other meaningful ways, though. But if Spider-Man showed up in Season 5, I don't think anyone would gripe.
While we still can't yet guarantee that Arrested Development Season 5 will debut on Netflix in late July or early August, we're certainly hoping for that to be the case, unless of course the streaming giant decided to put it out even earlier. While waiting to hear more, head to our 2018 Netflix premiere guide and our summer premiere schedule for all the shows that are definitely arriving soon.
