Ron Howard Says ‘Arrested Development’ Season 5 Scripts Being Written

Netflix recently announced plans to double their output of scripted series from 16 to 31 over the next year, but might somewhere in there be the oft-discussed fifth season of Arrested Development? Ron Howard says scripts are being written, so let’s brazenly jump to conclusions!

Making the rounds for In the Heart of the Sea, Arrested Development executive producer, narrator, and occasional star Ron Howard offered a vaguely hopeful update on the Bluth family future to Good Morning America (via Deadline):

Well, Mitch Hurwitz the creator of the show is working with writers now. 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.

Last we heard, Hurwitz was indeed staffing writers to determine a structure and episode order, likely less than the seventeen producer Brian Grazer promised would begin production in early 2016. And while Netflix boss Ted Sarandos claimed over the summer that deal were “plugging along,” unclear is if the streaming service would structure new Arrested Development as “Season 5.” Series star Jason Bateman previously described the Season 4 label as “disingenuous,” saying:

[The episodes] were meant to be the first act of a three-act story that [creator Mitch Hurwitz] had in his head. And the second two acts … are still yet to be told. He thought it would be fun to do the first act in some episodes. And that’s what that was, but Netflix called it ‘season four,’ which was a little disingenuous because it implied that the show was coming back.

And that’s not what the show was, because each episode was about an individual character, and I think it was a little confusing and frankly underwhelming for the audience. That was unfortunate. It wasn’t branded honestly. Or correctly, I should say.

Arrested Development’s cast certainly isn’t getting any less in-demand, but should we take stock in Howard’s assessment of writing progress? Will the Bluth family ever truly recapture their former glory?

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