Fans long awaiting new episodes of “Arrested Development” will soon get their fix — and all at once.
While onstage at the National Association of Broadcasters convention on Tuesday, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos announced that all 10 episodes of the fourth season of “Arrested Development” will premiere together, on one day, sometime next year on the streaming website, reports Vulture.
The announcement may be news to “Arrested” star Tony Hale, who plays dysfunctional youngest son Buster Bluth. While promoting his new political satire “Veep” in an interview on Monday, Hale told us he prefers to be blissfully unaware of details regarding the series’ return.
“The bummer is you probably know more than I do,” Hale said when asked for any news on the sitcom’s revival, but then added, “what I do know is [production] is definitely happening this summer.”
Hale said the writers are almost finished penning scripts, but that he is deliberately staying out of the loop when it comes to potential storylines.
“Here’s the thing: I really don’t want to hear the plotlines because the whole fun of the show was the element of surprise, where we would be doing the show and then all of a sudden we’d read a script and I’d be like, ‘OK, well, in this episode my hand’s coming off,” he says, referring to Buster’s infamous incident with a biting seal. “I love that surprise, so I kind of don’t want any information. I just want to be completely surprised as to what Mitch [Hurwitz, ‘Arrested’ creator] has come up with.”
As for that rumored “Arrested” movie, “I don’t know that much information but I think like anything you take it project by project,” Hale says. “I think we’re all just kind of focusing on the episodes right now, and if the movie happens, it happens, that’s fantastic. But I’m excited about the episodes. Everybody in the cast is just so fun; I can’t wait to, like, not be able to hold it together because I’m laughing so hard.”
But returning to full-time Buster mode requires just as much work as play.
“Buster has, you know, very interesting shoes to step into,” Hale says, “so I’ve gotta kind of get back into that mindset. It’s weird. The show finished six years ago and I actually haven’t — I think I’ve seen two episodes since it stopped. So my wife and I are kind of going to do a marathon viewing before we start shooting just so I can get back into that mindset.”
