While none of the main cast members have officially signed on yet, Mitch Hurwitz is currently working on season 5 of Arrested Development, and today Deadline has a bunch of new information about the direction he’s taking for the new season, when we can expect it to hit Netflix, and how some recent news headlines have altered some of the storylines he had in mind. Here’s what Hurwitz said about next season’s format:
The Season 4 finale ended with Buster arrested for the murder of Lucille Austero. That set up Season 5, which will be a serialized murder mystery, Hurwitz said. When he originally mapped out the fifth season, he had no idea the genre would become white hot — first with The Jinx and Serial, and now with the Netflix phenomenon Making a Murderer. Season 5 of Arrested Development is in the vein of Making a Murderer, noted Hurwitz, a big fan of the real-crime documentary series.
And here’s an interesting bit of trivia about a George Bluth Sr. we’ll never get to see:
Because of the delay of Season 5 over synching up the cast’s schedules, Hurwitz will have to discard some story ideas. For instance, for a long time, he had been envisioning that George, played by Jeffrey Tambor, would become a woman, changing the dynamic of his relationship with Michael. In light of Tambor’s acclaimed performance as Maura in Transparent, that is no longer in the cards. (Hurwitz at one point even had planned to have George as a mute woman, which happened to to be a disguise The Jinx‘s Robert Durst used.) There was also Bluths’ idea to have the Mexicans pay for the wall, which has been shared by Trump.
In addition, Hurwitz revealed that he’s aiming for the new season to be out before November’s elections, so start your Arrested Development season 5 timers now.
