Arrested Development’s renaissance continues: executive producer Brian Grazer has announced there will be 17 episodes in a new fifth season.
In a fairly off-the-cuff remark amid a discussion at SXSW about his current hit show Empire, he said: “I love Arrested Development, but it was never a huge thing. But people are loyal to it, and we’re going to do another 17 episodes. So stay tuned for Arrested Development.”
It follows comments last year from Netflix head Ted Sarandos, who said “It’s just a matter of when”, after being asked if new episodes were incoming, and from series actor Will Arnett, who said “It’s going to happen, we don’t know when but it is going to happen.”
The show had its own development arrested after its network Fox ended it in 2006 after three seasons – with the threat of cancellation self-referentially alluded to on the show itself. It helped launch the careers of Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and David Cross, and earned itself a passionate and vocal cult – eventually the show was brought back in 2013 by Netflix for another 15 episodes.
