The Bluth family is getting back together, but in a more formal way this time, as “Arrested Development” cast member Will Arnett revealed.
Speaking with Business Insider, Arnett said that the cast will be spending a lot more time together on screen in the upcoming fifth season of the sitcom.
Therefore, the new season will be structured “much like the original broadcast series,” he said.
Critics of “Arrested Development’s” fourth season, which aired on Netflix in 2013, noted its strange structure, which featured interconnected vignettes starring only one or two of the characters at a time. This was due to conflicting schedules, which kept the show’s ensemble from filming together.
Season 4 works in the way a show could only work on Netflix. When watched together, all 15 episodes depict a complete story. Each episode takes place over the approximately same stretch of time, and later episodes can fill in the blanks left by each other. However, this made the season feel more disparate than the others. It also felt like less happened — an impressive feat considering the Bluths don’t tend to do anything anyway.
The entire regular series cast — Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat — are all set to return for the fifth season, which will premiere in 2018 on Netflix.
Series creator Mitchell Hurwitz and executive producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard are also all returning.