Arrested Development isn’t leaving Netflix anymore. The streamer announced on Twitter that the show will remain on the platform after licensing issues nearly resulted in its removal.
While Netflix initially planned on taking down all five seasons of the show on March 15th, including the two produced by Netflix, that never happened. That’s because Netflix reached a deal with the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios, which still holds the rights to the series after it originally premiered on Fox in 2003, according to a report from Vulture.
Under the terms of the new deal, Vulture reports Netflix will gain exclusive streaming rights to the series, and that the show’s first three seasons will eventually leave Hulu later this year (sorry, Hulu subscribers). The deal will reportedly let Disney sell the linear TV rights to all five seasons as well, meaning the show could wind up on a television network, whether it belongs to Disney or not.
Arrested Development, which stars Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, the late Jessica Walter, and many other stars, has long remained a staple on Netflix. (It was certainly one of the very first series I watched when I first subscribed to Netflix nearly a decade ago now.) Not to mention that the show is also one of Netflix’s very first original series. After the streamer picked up Arrested Development following its cancellation on Fox in 2006, Netflix revived it for two (somewhat disappointing) seasons, with one debuting in 2013, and another landing on the platform in two separate parts in 2018 and 2019.
Source: The Verge
