ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT Season 5 Could Begin Filming in Early 2017

Ever since Netflix picked up Arrested Development and the lackluster and splintered fourth season hit the streaming service, fans have wanted to see if creator/showrunner Mitch Hurwitz could right the ship with new episodes. At one point we were theoretically supposed to see the fifth season right about now, but Hurwitz has promised that a fifth season will definitely happen, and now we have the latest update about when that might come to pass.

THR reports that Hurwitz was on a panel promoting another show at the Television Critics Association press tour, and the first question out of the gate was about Arrested Development.

"Of course that's what we're here to discuss," Hurwitz cracked, before giving a hopefully nebulous answer.

"We're very close," Hurwitz promised. "It's a thing I really am desperate to do. We've got a lot of the stories broken. We're kinda ready to go. I'm so appreciative of the fans wanting more, I hate to tease them with information that there is going to be more until we know for sure, but it's what we're trying to accomplish and if does happen it looks like shooting would be at the start of 2017. That's what I'm hoping."

The idea of them being "ready to go" sounds like the scripts are all in place, so that's a great sign. My biggest hope is that he's learned from the mistakes of the fourth season and will convince Netflix to pay the cast enough money to carve out time to shoot the new episodes together instead of separately. There were moments in the fourth season in which an actor was green-screened into a group scene because of all of the scheduling problems they had, and that really hurt the chemistry between actors that made the show so great to begin with.