The 2016 TV landscape is shaping up to be something of a digital time machine. As we detailed last week, a few of the more exciting and curious TV reboots coming soon to a screen near you include Full House, Prison Break, and The X-Files. But above all, the most highly anticipated TV show set to return next year is season 5 of Arrested Development.
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For months now, the rumored fifth season of Arrested Development has been subject to rampant and, at times, inconsistent speculation. And with a passionate (read: borderline obsessive) fan base, fans were quick to latch onto and dissect even the tiniest morsel of a rumor about a new season of the critically acclaimed and brilliantly innovative program.
Well with 2016 now just around the corner, dozens (dozens!) of previously incomplete and unsubstantiated rumors are finally starting to crystallize. Up until recently, the last we heard of Arrested Development season 5 was that it would total 17 episodes and was ideally being prepped for a summer 2016 release on Netflix.
And then, nothing but radio silence.
But just a few days ago, we finally got the clearest indication that work on the upcoming season has finally started. Appearing on Good Morning America this past Friday, series narrator and executive producer Ron Howard said that show creator Mitch Hurtwiz has already started talking to the show’s writers.
“Well, Mitch Hurwitz, the creator of the show, is working with writers now,” Howard said. “Netflix is behind it, 20th Century Fox is behind it. It’s hopeful. What has happened is that the cast has become so freakin’ in demand and busy. Everyone wants to do it. Fans want it. I would be saddened if we didn’t achieve it. I’m the announcer and the narrator, and I have to get back to that microphone.”
Preach Howard, preach.
Indeed, the cast’s busy scheduling is what led to a somewhat disjointed and unfamiliar show structure in the show’s fourth season, one that left some of the show’s many hardcore fans disappointed. With season 5, however, Hurwitz has said that he plans to do all he can to revert back to the more traditional storytelling structure seen during the series’ first three seasons, one which saw multiple characters featured in each episode.
