On Sunday, Arrested Development fans are going to be doing one thing - watching the 15 new episodes that will be up on Netflix. While there have been some rumblings about the fourth season of the cult show being a one-off, star Jason Bateman hinted that there’s actually more to the story of the Bluth family.
“There will be more to this story,” Bateman told E! News. He said that creator Mitch Hurwitz had planned to do a movie, but his script got too long and that turned into the 15 episodes fans will get to see this weekend. But even these episodes won’t be the whole story.
“So he decided to take the first act of that movie and put it these episodes,” Bateman explained. “Acts two or three will either be in a movie or a longer form on Netflix. Watching these [Netflix] episodes will be fully satisfying, and it all comes to a conclusion, but there are plenty of questions that are left unanswered…which we will finish at some other time.”
In a separate interview with Rolling Stone, Hurwitz also said that he began developing the further misadventures of the Bluths as a film. He said that if an Arrested Development movie happened, people would go in knowing nine characters.
“I started thinking that one of the compelling attributes of the show will be, ‘Where have these people gone?’ Now the story has changed from what happens next to what happened in the last six years, and what happens next?” Hurwitz told the magazine. “Also, because it was about a family and because the kids are getting older, all those things are suddenly interesting parts of the story, and more interesting in many ways than bringing the family to Hawaii, which somebody had done.”
At one point, Hurwitz thought about doing a trilogy, but Ron Howard said that would be impossible. So, he hatched the idea of an anthology series that would have each episode focus on a single character, which is what fans will see on Netflix.
When asked if a movie will ever happen, Hurwitz told Rolling Stone, “This is definitely the first part of a bigger story. I know there's more story and I've mapped out the story. I'm confident in how that will be.”
He continued, “Still, I wouldn't have predicted this Netflix thing years ago. The creative people involved in this want to do more together. The actors want to do more of this. I want to do more of this. The writers want it. I think every part of it will be easier, unless this is a giant debacle, which is also a possibility. In that case, we'll do it as a little stage show.”
image: Facebook