Arrested Development fans might have thought that, following the periodic assurance that season five is in fact on its way, they could just sit back and wait for the new episodes to show up on Netflix at some point in their lives. And wait they will, but we now have more news to whet their appetites. According to TV Line, the fifth season will have “a major prequel element” to it, which hopefully means we’ll see a lot more of Gene Parmesan.


Netflix hasn’t commented on TV Line’s findings, but the publication claims to have an exclusive on this latest report. Now, the rumor is that “potentially half of the action” will involve “flashbacks featuring much younger versions of all the principal characters (played by different actors).” That would certainly seem to take care of the nigh-insurmountable scheduling trouble that’s plagued the production of the fifth season. With Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Jason Bateman, David Cross, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Portia de Rossi, and Tony Hale all tied up with other projects, relying on younger actors to sub in occasionally could help move things along.