After years of speculation, it’s finally been confirmed. Despite being teased as early as 2014, the beloved cult comedy, Arrested Development, was never greenlit for a season 5. Then in January of this year, there was considerable talk of the show finally returning to Netflix, but once again everything seemed to have fizzled out. Needless to say, fans of the classic show were left feeling pretty miserable after yet another seemingly baseless tease from the show’s creators.
In an amazing turn of events, Arrested Development was confirmed for another season out of the blue today, and it looks like we’ll be able to see the Bluth family on small screens in 2018. The news was made public after reports initially surfaced thanks to the good folks over at Variety. Arrested Development‘s official twitter account then shared the announcement with a subtle tease, alluding to the narrative structure of season 5.
This time the Bluths are all together. Whether they like it or not. pic.twitter.com/RrCvHiqOCa
— Arrested Development (@arresteddev) May 17, 2017
This “being together” is obviously great news for devoted viewers. As many will recall, the prior season went in a bit of a different direction and focused on separate characters’ point of views throughout the shortened season. Naturally, this was an unwelcome addition to the series which had effortlessly weaved multiple storylines into every episode. Even more good news, is that all series regulars will be reprising their roles. Along with show creator, Mitchell Hurwitz, expect all of Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat to have considerable screen time in the upcoming season.
In a tongue-in-cheek statement to Variety, Hurwitz joked that now is the perfect time to lampoon a family like the Bluths. “In talks with Netflix we all felt that that stories about a narcissistic, erratically behaving family in the building business — and their desperate abuses of power — are really underrepresented on TV these days,” he said alluding to the Trumps. “I am so grateful to them and to 20th TV for making this dream of mine come true in bringing the Bluths, George Sr., Lucille and the kids; Michael, Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric, George-Michael, and who am I forgetting, oh Tiffany. Did I say Tiffany? — back to the glorious stream of life.”
With the announcement making the rounds online, expect more information regarding season 5 to come down the pipeline in the next few weeks. In the meantime, it looks like we’ll be able to watch new episodes of Arrested Development sometime next year. To help tide us over, watch Jeffrey Tambor speak about his time on the show.
