A fifth season of Arrested Development is coming to Netflix some time in the middle of 2016, according to producer Brian Grazer. Grazer confirmed the news on Adam Corolla’s podcast.
“Netflix is determined to do more episodes, so we’re going to do more episodes,” Grazer said on Carolla’s show. He also said that the new season would go from 15 in season four up to 17 for this new season.
Netflix brought Arrested Development back in 2013 after it had been canceled on FOX a few years previous. Fans wanted more, and so Netflix stepped up and brought the show back, albeit with a different twist.
The fourth season of Arrested Development had the different members of the dysfunctional and idiotic Bluth family appear in their own individual episodes, with the other members floating in and out like satellites. The gimmick felt like nothing more than just a gimmick, and it really stole a lot of the charm and energy from the episodes in the first two seasons. Season three felt like desperation, but it still worked better than the Netflix rebirth.
Hopefully, Grazer, Mitch Hurwitz and Ron Howard won’t resort to that technique again and will simply let the Bluth’s work their magic all together.