Promotional events for the premiere of Arrested Development Season 5 have been canceled just days before its premiere. The cast was scheduled to do a UK press tour in London this week but released a statement announcing they'll find another time to visit fans overseas. While no explicit reasoning was given for the cancelation, it appears tied a recent New York Times interview which resulted in another scandal involving actor Jeffrey Tambor:
Members of the Arrested Development cast have been put on the spot as of late after Jessica Walter tearfully talked about experiencing verbal harassment by co-star Jeffrey Tambor during a cast interview. Since that article, Jason Bateman and Tony Hale have apologized for their attempts to downplay the situation moments after Walters made the claim, and ETOnline said David Cross expressed regret in for not speaking up on behalf of Walter in the moment. In short, it's become a topic that will likely be broached in every interview with the Arrested Development cast in the near future, which may be why the show has decided to stop its press tour for the time being.
Of course, the Arrested Development scandal is heightened due to the fact that Jeffrey Tambor has already had a very public scandal with another high profile show earlier this year. Tambor was fired from the series Transparent following an investigation of accusations of sexual harassment. Tambor vehemently denied the accusations, and while some in Hollywood have lost projects following these types of scandals, Netflix confirmed Tambor was going to be a part of Arrested Development.
Now, with the news that there was trouble involving Tambor on the show's set so soon after another public scandal of his, it only makes sense the media would seek out answers regarding the situation and how the cast feels about Tambor's actions. Arrested Development's canceling of events just a couple of days before the official premiere of Season 5 shows it's hoping to avoid any more drama that could be brought on by more interviews with its cast. Of course, this is all assuming this cancelation is tied to the scandal, and while it seems like a very small possibility it isn't, there could always be another reason.
The first batch of episodes for Arrested Development Season 5 premieres on Netflix Tuesday, May 29 at 12:01 PT. For a look at some other things coming to the streaming service around the same time, be sure to visit our Netflix premiere guide. Anyone looking for some fresh television to watch as the summer months draw ever closer should visit our summer premiere guide. For some other drama tied to Arrested Development, check out the dispute some representatives of the cast had with the series after the remixed episodes were released.
