Season 5 of Arrested Development “Definitely Happening”

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Earlier this year, Deadline reported that Mitch Hurwitz, creator of the beloved sitcom Arrested Development, was still attempting to get the gang back together for a fifth season of the show. Very little has come out about the progress that’s been made since then.

The show’s history has been a complicated one: It enjoyed critical acclaim but low ratings during its three seasons at Fox, and was almost picked up for a fourth season in 2006 by Showtime, but Hurwitz declined, stating that he felt the show had run its course. Fast forward to 2011, when Hurwitz signed a deal with Netflix to produce a shortened, 15-episode fourth season; Those episodes didn’t actually air until 2013. Since then, other than hopeful whispers of a potential feature film and fifth season, all has been quiet on the Bluth family front. That is, until this week.
On Wednesday, Hurwitz sat down with Esquire to talk about his new Netflix show Lady Dynamite, starring comedian Maria Bamford, which premieres today. While going through the motions of answering questions about the show, casting Bamford, and his writing process, Hurwitz was confronted with the question that he is no doubt constantly asked: “When is Arrested Development coming back?”

Hurwitz gave an answer that will be sure to excite any Arrested Development fan: “It’ll definitely happen.”

Here’s Hurwitz’s answer in full (emphasis is our own:)

“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. 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.”

So, not only is season five confirmed (like, for real this time,) but efforts are being made to bring season four to network TV, which is just all sorts of ironic.

Hurwitz was originally hoping to have the season done before this year’s election, as some of the major events of season four have, quite prophetically, become reflected in real life. For example, in season four, Lindsay Bluth (played by Portia de Rossi) gained political clout after she passionately declared that the U.S. should build a wall to separate itself from Mexico and “keep Mexicans out.” The season finale featured the youngest Bluth brother, Buster, being implicated in the murder of sometimes-lover Lucille Austero (played by Liza Minnelli,) laying the foundation for a serialized murder mystery format that would later become popular with shows like Making a Murderer and The Jinx.

Fans of the show know that it helped to set trends in the entertainment industry, but the previously mentioned examples take that to a whole new level. So while it looks like we won’t be seeing Lindsay’s political campaign unfold parallel to Donald Trump’s, we will be getting some new Arrested Development sometime in the future, and that’s better than nothing!

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Bill Tressler

Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.
Bill Tressler
Bill Tressler
Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.