Jeffrey Tambor Coming Back for 'Arrested Development' Season 5

George Bluth Sr. will be back to a Netflix screen near you.Despite the swirl of harassment [...]

George Bluth Sr. will be back to a Netflix screen near you.

Despite the swirl of harassment allegations surrounding him, actor Jeffrey Tambor will appear in the upcoming fifth season of Arrested Development, a Netflix spokesperson told Variety.

Fans of the show speculated whether or not the 73-year-old actor would return to the comedy series after Amazon fired him from its original series, Transparent, in February following multiple misconduct allegations against him by his former personal assistant, Van Barnes, as well as Transparent guest star Trace Lysette.

Tambor denied the harassment allegations, which led to an internal investigation by the retail and streaming giant.

"I am profoundly disappointed in Amazon's handling of these false accusations against me," Tambor said in a statement released by Variety in February prior to his firing. "I am even more disappointed in [series creator] Jill Soloway's unfair characterization of me as someone who would ever cause harm to any of my fellow cast mates. In our four-year history of working together on this incredible show, these accusations have NEVER been revealed or discussed directly with me or anyone at Amazon."

Meanwhile, the cast of Arrested Development has voiced their support of their co-star. David Cross, who plays the goofy Tobias Fünke, told am New York that while he "can't speak for everybody" in the cast, he knows "there are number of us who can stand behind [Tambor] — from the limited amount we know, we stand behind Jeffrey — and I am one of them."

Netflix greenlit the much-anticipated fifth season of Arrested Development in May 2017, before the Amazon allegations surfaced. No official date has yet been announced for season 5, although series creator Mitchell Hurwitz alluded that it would drop "shortly," perhaps even before this summer.

"Like real soon," he wrote in a note shared on Twitter this week. "Like, if you knew when, you would not be wrong in thinking 'why are we all just hearing this now?'"

A "remixed" version of season 4, which initially debuted in a Rashomon-style of storytelling to mixed reviews, was dropped onto Netflix Friday, taking the footage from season 4 and reworking it into a traditional 22-episode sitcom format.

"The original season four of Arrested Development on Netflix, as some of you know, experimented with a Rashomon-style of storytelling — with each episode dedicated to the adventure of one member of the Bluth family," Hurwitz explained.

"The goal was that by the end of the season, a unified story of cause and effect would emerge for the viewer — full of surprises about how the Bluths were responsible for most of the misery that they had endured."

Hurtwitz went on to explain that he had shuffled the 15 episodes of season 4 into a traditional 22 episode sitcom season, where the stories were reorganized so that each episode told a complete story. He said that the remix was "an experiment to find out, well... I guess 'if I could make some money.'"

However, he assured his followers that the season contained "new jokes and a new perspective," writing "I'm really excited about the final result."

In addition to Tambor and Cross, Arrested Development also stars Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, Jessica Walter, Michael Cera and Alia Shawkat.

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