Arrested Development development was one of the first TV shows kicking off this slew of revivals and reboots on TV, and the fourth season was a welcome one. As it ended on a bit of a cliffhanger, there are plenty of directions a fifth season could go in. However, news has been pretty slow on the development front despite previous news that we may get new episodes this year. Luckily, creator Mitch Hurwitz spoke out this week to explain that Arrested Development Season 5 is definitely in the cards. Here’s what he had to say:
It'll happen. It'll definitely happen. Not before the election, but it's definitely going to happen. I say that because the actors want to do it, the studio wants to do it, Netflix wants to do it, I want to do it. It's just making it happen. There's no one resisting.
Hurwitz’s comments to Esquire serve to reassure us that there has been at least a little movement on the Arrested Development front. We know the problem is and isn’t the cast. A while back, Arrested Development actor Tony Hale said that everyone was pretty much onboard to return for a fifth season, which is great news. However, scheduling is a huge issue. Jason Bateman is a movie star. Tony Hale is on Veep. Jeffrey Tambor stars in Transparent and has a slew of other projects in the works. Will Arnett has another Netflix series called Flaked. Portia de Rossi is on Scandal. I could keep going, but suffice to say, all the leads keep busy with other projects. It's difficult to shoot Arrested Development, even if it's set up around the actors' schedules.
Obviously, there ended up being nearly 7 years years between the Season 3 finale of Arrested Development on Fox and its return on Netflix in 2013. Therefore, if Season 5 happens before we hit the seven-year mark, we shouldn’t have to much to complain about. Still, now that we got one set of new episodes, I think fans are clamoring for more. Luckily, Mitch Hurwitz also says that the team recut Arrested Development to air in its original network TV format. Maybe that’ll tide us over in the interim?
There's a recut, too, of the fourth season, just to make it airable on TV. They're like the old Arrested Developments. We redid all the narration and reshot a few little things. Now we have 22 episodes, and they're delightful to watch and they're much less work than the Netflix series. My hope is we'll find a place to air those.
Hurwitz has already gone on the record to state that Arrested Development Season 5 would follow the investigation surrounding the disappearance and possible murder of Lucille 2. If you’d like to know more about the potential Season 5 plot, head here.
In the meantime, Netflix has a ton of other projects in the works. You can check out what has been announced in our Netflix TV premiere schedule.
