We still haven’t heard if or when exactly a new season of Arrested Development is happening, but it is clear that members of the cast and crew do want to make another one. Executive producer Brian Grazer is the latest person related to the show to say that more Bluth misadventures are on the way.
During an interview for Bill Simmons’ The BS Report at SXSW last month, Grazer got surprisingly specific about the show’s return, even mentioning the number of episodes they plan to make.
“I love Arrested Development, but it was never a huge thing,” Grazer told Simmons in the just-released interview. “But people are loyal to it. We're going to do another 17 episodes, so stay tuned for Arrested Development."
One thing Grazer wasn’t specific about was where the new episodes would be posted. As The Hollywood Reporter points out, he didn’t mention Netflix at all and the streaming service didn’t comment. “Everyone involved has expressed a desire to do more episodes, but we have nothing firm to announce at this time,” a 20th Century Fox TV rep told THR.
Arrested Development first aired on Fox from 2003-2006, but was cancelled after poor ratings. Netflix brought it back in 2013 for 15 episodes and, since then, creator Mitch Hurwitz and others have talked about a fifth season. Actor Will Arnett sounded pretty confident about it in August 2014. Hurwitz even agreed to stay in the Netflix fold, signing a multi-year overall deal in April 2014.
The series centers on the Bluth family, and stars Michael Cera, Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Arnett, Portia De Rossi, Alia Shawkat, David Cross, Tony Hale and Jessica Walter. Everyone did return for the Netflix season, but due to their packed schedules, only a few episodes actually featured them all at once. Hopefully for a fifth season, they can all iron out their schedules better.