It’s been more than a year and a half since it was first announced that Arrested Development Season 5 would be a thing that might one day exist. Other than a few updates half-confirming that plan still exists, though, not much has happened by way of actually getting it into production beyond creator Mitch Hurwitz working on writing the presumably complicated and twisty story. Thankfully, star Tony Hale just revealed that there is a damned good reason why it’s taking so long for it to come together: they’re trying to get the whole band back together.
That’s “back together” as in “all of the actors once again coming back to film the episodes together as one group.” That’s huge news, since Season 4 made the strange but possibly unavoidable choice to film despite not having the entire ensemble cast available for each episode. So much of it was filmed with just a couple of actors at a time, with each installment focusing on a different character, and sometimes scenes would be put together via green screen with actors filming in completely different locations. It created some backlash among viewers, since the approach felt very different from the nearly universally acclaimed first three seasons on Fox. (I still liked it a lot, because the jokes were still excellent, but I get the complaints.)
It was widely suspected that the many actors’ schedules were part of the problem in getting Season 5 together, but I’d assumed that implied Jason Bateman (or whoever else) was just too busy to be in the show in any capacity. But that would be kind of crazy, now that I think about it, considering everyone involved with the show has been extremely positive about coming back for another wacky season of never-nudes and kissing cousins. Tony Hale also confirmed that “everyone wants to do it,” and his revelation makes a lot of sense. Hopefully it’s the REAL reason why Season 5 is taking so long, and not just something he told Huffington Post for hook-handed shits and giggles.
The actor, whose Emmy-winning work on HBO’s Veep is currently taking up taking up his time, said that having the whole cast around was a definitely plus.
To be honest, I miss that, too. I miss working across from Gob or working across from Lucille or Tobias.
We miss it, too, Tony! Mitch Hurwitz’s Netflix deal recently put him back with Will Arnett for the non-universally praised comedy Flaked, so I’m sure they talked. And although most of the other cast members have high-profile projects of their own to worry about, from Jeffrey Tambor’s Transparent to Ron Howard’s movie career, the universe has to settle up so that they can all become one with Arrested Development for at least one more season. Especially if that season is a murder mystery.
We’ll see you in 2017 or so, when the next Arrested Development Season 5 update becomes available.
