I have very mixed feelings on Arrested Development Season 4. On the one hand, I think season three wraps up perfectly, closing out the story in a way that you feel like everyone’s arc was serviced. But because fans always want “more” without much definition on what that “more” entails, we got season four on Netflix, which was a difficult beast. It was a season crafted around the inability to work with everyone’s schedules, so each episode was mainly built around one character with a whole lot of obvious body double work. There was only one scene where everyone was back together, and that drained the series of its manic energy. Even worse, the season ends with Michael (Jason Bateman) and George Michael (Michael Cera) in direct conflict after they both fall for the same woman.

So now rather than Season 5 being a nice thing to have, we kind of need it, and Netflix is finally delivering. Netflix has officially renewed Mitch Hurwitz’ series and that the main cast—Bateman, Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, and Alia Shawkat—will be reprising their roles. The series is set to premiere in 2018.

arrested-development-season-4-david-cross-jason-bateman
Image via Netflix

In a statement, Hurwitz said:

“In talks with Netflix we all felt that that stories about a narcissistic, erratically behaving family in the building business — and their desperate abuses of power — are really underrepresented on TV these days,” said series creator Mitchell Hurwitz, before adding. “I am so grateful to them and to 20th TV for making this dream of mine come true in bringing the Bluths, George Sr., Lucille and the kids; Michael, Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric, George-Michael, and who am I forgetting, oh Tiffany. Did I say Tiffany? — back to the glorious stream of life.”

Filming is likely to take place this summer, but it remains to be seen if Hurwitz takes the same tact as Season 4 where the cast is spread out, or if he’s got their schedules working in such a way that they can be together. As for what the plot will be, in January 2016, Hurwitz says it would be in the vein of Making a Murderer, and as you’ll recall, another loose thread in Season 4 was that Buster was arrested for the murder of Lucille Austero.

What do you want to see when Arrested Development returns? Did you like Season Four? Sound off in the comments section.

arrested-development-season-4-kristen-wiig-seth-rogen
Image via Netflix
michael-cera-arrested-development
Image via Netflix
arrested-development-pilot
Image via Fox