Few shows are more anticipated in 2017 than Larry David's ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. And for good reason. The show has now been away for five years and fans are more than ready for LD to get back to it. While very little is known about the new season, we do know that Larry and his co-star J.B. Smoove are hard at work, though an air-date has yet to be announced.

You could say Smoove is one of the reasons that Curb has come this far. Smoove joined the show in season six as part of the Blacks, a family Larry and his wife Cheryl took in after Hurricane Katrina (Smoove's Leon wasn't displaced by the hurricane like the rest of this family, though; he was already living in Los Angeles). As Leon, Smoove injected new life into the show as Larry's sidekick, even though the two characters couldn't be any different. And even when the rest of the Black family left the show, Leon inexplicably topsy-turvied that motherfucker and stayed. Going into the new season, Larry and Leon are still attached at the hip, and thank god for that.

With everyone—including us—basically salivating at the mouth for details on the new season of Curb, Complex recently had the exclusive opportunity to have a quick chat with Smoove about the show, how he's already pushing Larry for a tenth season, and more.

How is filming for the new season going so far?

It's going great man. We got a few episodes already in. I go back to work on Tuesday. We're just knocking it out. It's going to be a great season of Curb. It's good to be back.

You guys took a long time off.

I told Larry don't take that kind of time off! [Laughs.]

When you guys first got back for this new season, was it like riding a bike?

It was. I think Larry was—you know, with being gone that long, there's a lot of pressure coming back. To come back or not. It's the highly-anticipated return of Curb, and it's one of those things like, "Man, should I come back?" I'm sure he questioned himself: "Should I come back or ride off into the sunset."

I told Larry, you can't end like that. You got to put a stamp on the season. It was a great season eight, but season nine? Going to be historic because it's the return. But then you gotta do another season because you have to seal it off. Ten seasons looks good in the box set. Eight don't look—nine don't look good. Ten is perfect.

Any idea on an air-date yet?

Oh man, I don't know. I have no idea. I wish I did know. I'm assuming late in the year. Fans are waiting. We gotta get this season popping. I'm ready for everyone to see what's going on. Check back in with Larry.

How aware are you and Larry of the clash Curb might cause in this era of super wokeness?

You know, I throw around these words all the time to Larry. Larry is an old white man. I gotta cue him in on certain words and lingos and things that are going on in the world that he may not be aware of. So I have thrown the woke word around him several times. Sometimes he takes it too literally and tries to correct you as opposed to listening and being woke himself. You know how hard it is to tell somebody to be woke and they ain't woke? He's not woke. So it's hard to tell him to be woke.

That sounds like a potential Curb episode right there.

It's a great Curb episode. I'm going to get that man woke before the season is over, I'll tell you that much.