The long-gestating fifth season of Arrested Development on Netflix suddenly became a hot topic this week, with both Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos and star Will Arnett confirming that there will be one over the last two days. “It’s just a matter of when,” Sarandos told USA Today, with Arnett, who announced the show’s return on both Today and Tonight Show, also noting that the timeline for the new season is fuzzy. “It is going to happen, we don’t know when, but it is going to happen,” he told Jimmy Fallon (watch video).
These have been the most definitive statements to date that Arrested Development — long expected to come back — would do a Season 5. But, despite the momentum in the media, that fifth season does not appear closer to fruition that it was months ago. I hear there is no deal, and creator/executive producer Mitch Hurwitz is yet to pitch an idea or present a script to the studio, which produces the series, 20th Century TV. Additionally, the potential fifth season is expected to feature the entire or most of the cast together after the structure of Season 4, which spotlighted a different character in each episode, received lukewarm reaction from fans, or as Sarandos described it, “a fair criticism.” The shoot would be really hard to organize logistically with the cast scattered, including several actors tied to series, Will Arnett (The Millers, Netflix animated comedy BoJack Horseman), Tony Hale (Veep) and Jeffrey Tambor (Amazon’s Transparent.) The earliest the gang could get back together would be during the next summer hiatus.
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