The long-awaited fifth season of “Arrested Development” — which, yes, we’re still waiting for — will see Alia Shawkat’s character Maeby taking on a variety of new personas.
“This year, I got to be in a lot of disguises, which is really fun,” Shawkat teases.
The new script is expected to pick up with the season four cliffhanger murder of Lucille Austero (Liza Minnelli), which left nearly every member of the dysfunctional Bluth family a suspect.
When we last saw Maeby Fünke, the daughter of Tobias (David Cross) and Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), she was borrowing cash from Lucille for her startup Fakeblock, facing charges for sleeping with a minor and meddling with Michael (Jason Bateman) and George-Michael (Michael Cera) who were dating the same woman.
No matter how you slice it, Maeby has plenty of reasons to hide come season five’s opener.
“I mean, she’s going through so much s—,” Shawkat says. “She’s naturally trying to still get the attention of her parents . . . She’s running away from her past a lot, but then acting really chill about it as she does.”
The actress, who went on to star in TBS’ “Search Party” post-”Arrested Development,” says her character is actually living in an “old folks home” when the series picks up.
“It’s a confusing show because it’s all over the place. At the end of the day, we’re like, ‘What did we just make?’ But it’s always been like that,” she explains. “I’m excited for people to see it.”
Netflix has kept quiet on a projected release date, leaving fans in the dark since wrapping up filming late last year. Sexual misconduct allegations surrounding the series’ lead Jeffrey Tambor has seemingly left the series in limbo, though Cross has assured “a number of” the cast “stands behind him.”
“Arrested Development” aired three seasons on Fox before moving to Netflix in 2013. Its buzzed-about return was first announced last May and brings back the entire cast including Bateman, Cera, Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, de Rossi, Cross and Shawkat.
