Jeffrey Tambor will appear in Arrested Development Season 5, Newsweek has confirmed, despite the 73-year-old actor's recent sexual harassment allegations.
A spokesperson from Netflix had no comment on Tambor's harassment allegations and subsequent firing from Transparent, saying only, "Transparent is an Amazon show."
The fifth season of the cult-hit comedy has been in, well, arrested development for quite some time now. Days after star Alia Shawkat revealed filming on the Season 5 had finally wrapped—more than four years since Season 4 debuted on Netflix—Tambor, who plays the patriarch George Bluth Sr. on the series, was hit with multiple accusations of sexual harassment in the workplace.
Tambor's Transparent co-star Trace Lysette publicly accused him of inappropriate conduct on set, including an incident in which Tambor allegedly pressed up against her and began "discreet thrusts back and forth" on her body. Three months later, Amazon officially fired Tambor from the show. The star had already threatened to quit in November and vehemently denied that he had "deliberately" harassed anyone.
My full statement #MeToo pic.twitter.com/V4CHpvEMpZ
— Trace Lysette (@tracelysette) November 17, 2017
Tambor's accusations came in the throes of the #MeToo movement, just one month after more than 80 women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Netflix and showrunner Mitchell Hurwitz wisely kept any official Arrested Development release date or official news to themselves since the production's wrap. (With the exception of David Cross, who said he and others on Arrested Development stood by Tambor in February. Cross, too, faced heat in October when comedian Charlyne Yi accused him of once making racist comments.)
But earlier this week, Hurwitz finally offered a Season 5 update. Perhaps he decided six months was enough distance from the #MeToo anger—or more likely, he was forced to, in order to announce the Season 4 "remix" release, which began streaming today. In addition to announcing the Season 4 recut, Hurwitz promised in a Twitter statement that Season 5 was coming so soon that "if you knew when, you would not be wrong thinking "why are we all just hearing about this now?"
Hurwitz's note seemed to suggest there is a Arrested Development season 5 release date, but did not reveal what that date was.
Netflix is undeniably in an awkward position. The streaming service set the precedent for Tambor's Amazon firing when it severed ties with House of Cards star Kevin Spacey in early November. Eight House of Cards employees accused the star of creating a "toxic" work environment. These accusations came after RENT actor Anthony Rapp claimed Spacey made sexual advances on him when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26. In response, Netflix fired Spacey from his lead role and promoted his co-star, Robin Wright, to finish the series' sixth and final season.
The news of Spacey's scandal came in the middle of House of Cards production, while Tambor's came just after Arrested Development had wrapped. At this point, no Netflix employees have publicly accused Tambor of inappropriate behavior on the Arrested Development set. Still, many called for a halt on the comedy's fifth season after Tambor's accusations came to light six months ago.
A representative for Hurwitz did not respond to a request for comment by time of publication.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Anna is a Newsweek culture writer based in New York City. Previously she was a Film/TV writer at Elite Daily and an ... Read more
