‘Arrested Development’ S5 Might Be Done Mostly Via Flashback W/ New Actors

Take this one with as many grains of salt as you’d like, because it’s not “confirmed” and the only credible source to be cited here is “an insider.”

The big hurdle to getting any potential new season of ‘Arrested Development‘ up off the ground is the teeny tiny little fact that its entire cast are now pretty successful actor-types who all have insanely busy schedules. And owing to the fact that it’s such a big ensemble show, coordinating bulk stretches of time where everyone is free at the same time is nigh-on impossible.
That’s why producers and creatives on the show have had to get crafty. For the fabled fourth season, we had our character-centric episode structure that required only a handful of the cast at any given time.
Critical reception for that work-around was middling at best, and as such for the highly-talked about/all-but-confirmed fifth season, a new way would have to be looked at.
And, uh. They might have found it.
According to TV Line, the show is gonna get around the cast scheduling problem this time by shooting as much as half the season in flashback, operating the whole shebang as a sort-of prequel to the series.
What’s more, they’d shoot those scenes set in the past with new actors playing younger versions of the characters.
This is apparently not “set in stone” just yet, and – we repeat – the source is an unnamed “insider,” so it’s at best a bit of scuttlebutt. But a filming structure like that would solve the issue and significantly reduce the amount of time the whole OG cast would be required on-set. Executive producer Brian Glazer hinted at some sort of format-shakeup when talking about the new season earlier this month:

“I think we found a way to create the compensation structure for all the actors and create a work matrix so they can still make movies and do other things and it will all integrate.”


Hmmm.

The quiet word is that filming on a new season of the show is set to begin in June. It’ll reportedly feature 17 new episodes.

Source: TV Line.

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