'Arrested Development' Season 5 Coming In 2016; Which Cast Members Will Return For 17-Episode Netflix Run?

If you’re a fan of “Arrested Development” but not a fan of podcasts, you’re clearly missing out. The series’ co-executive producer, Brian Grazer, has dropped two major hints about the future of the series on various podcasts in the past two months.

Ever since Netflix rescued the cult-classic from Fox’s cancellation in 2013, fans of the show have been clamoring for news that they haven’t said goodbye to the Bluth family’s outrageous antics for good. Luckily, Grazer alleviated fears in April when he appeared on the “B.S. Report” with Bill Simmons to reveal not only that another season of the comedy is in the works, but Netflix has upped the episode order from Season 4’s 15 episodes to an arbitrary 17. Although the popular streaming service has yet to comment on the matter, Vulture notes that the number seems far too random to be made up.

With 17 new episodes on the way, “Arrested Development” devotees were left wondering when they could binge-watch the entire fifth season. For that answer, Grazer recently took to “The Adam Carolla Show” to reveal that the new episodes should arrive sometime in the summer of 2016.

“Netflix is determined to do more episodes, so we’re going to do more episodes,” he told the host.

According to The Wrap, he revealed that he spoke with Fox Studios, which originally aired the show during its first three seasons on cable from 2003-2006, earlier that day. In fact, the co-executive producer claims he broke the good news to series creator Mitch Hurwitz in the green room moments before he started recording the podcast. The plan is to begin production on the new episodes on the first of January or February in 2016, which would make them ready for consumption on Netflix sometime around May. However, Grazer could not confirm a concrete release date, making this timeline susceptible to change.

What made filming for the fourth season of "Arrested Development" so difficult was wrangling the schedules of the diverse cast together. Many critics believe Season 4 suffered because there were precious few times that multiple Bluths could be in the same place at once. Luckily, according to Splitsider, all of the original cast members are returning for the new round of episodes on Netflix. The series stars Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat.