'Arrested Development' Season 4 Will Be 13, Not 10, Episodes Long, According to David Cross

According to an interview with David Cross, who plays the failed actor/therapist Tobias Funke, "Arrested Development" season four will be larger than fans originally thought.

"I think it's going to be 13 episodes, not 10," Cross told Rolling Stone. "There's too much story. Some characters will have two-parters. Everybody sort of participates, sometimes in a bigger way and sometimes in a tiny little thread that goes through everybody else's stories."

Originally, series creator Mitchell Hurwtiz intended the fourth season to serve as a lead-in for a feature film, with each episode focusing on a single character and allowing fans to catch up with the Bluths one-on-one. No news of a movie has emerged since it was announced last October, though Cross confirms that each episode will revolve around one primary character.

Cross also promises that the new season will more than live up to the hype the show has built up since leaving the air in 2006.

"I'm not gonna divulge anything, but I know what the stories are and what Mitch [Hurwitz] is doing, and it's so layered," Cross said. "I think a lot of people will miss the work that is involved, the story, the Venn diagrams that are being created, the domino effect that characters have with each other in their various episodes. I know what he's doing, and this has never been done on a TV show like this. This makes 'Lost' look like a Spalding Grey monologue. You'll have to watch each episode more than once."

"Arrested Development," canceled by Fox in 2006 after three years, built itself a dedicated cult following after it left the air. For years, fans petitioned the network to bring the series back as a movie. Then, last November, Netflix announced it would be airing a new season of the show online. Fans everywhere rejoiced.

The fan favorite premiered on Fox in 2003. It followed the lives of a dysfunctional wealthy Orange County, Calif., family, the Bluths. Before it was canceled, "Arrested Development" kick-started the careers of Michael Cera and Will Arnett, while revitalizing the then-struggling career of Jason Bateman.

Season 4 of "Arrested Development" is set to premiere early next year on Netflix. The online streaming service plans to make all 13 new episodes available at once, rather than spreading them out over several weeks.