Arrested Development series 4 gets air date on Netflix... and an extra episode

Despite originally commissioning ten episodes, Netflix announced back in January that the season would be increased to 14 instalments, and today Deadline reports the order has been upped to 15 after show creator Mitch Hurwitz shot more material than originally planned.

The revived fourth season will be released to all Netflix members at 00:01 PDT (08:01 BST) in its available territories - the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Latin America, Brazil and the Nordics.

Chief Content Officer for Netflix, Ted Sarandos, said, "Arrested Development is now widely viewed as one of the top TV comedies of all time and Mitchell Hurwitz is bringing it to Netflix in a brand new way, crafted for the on-demand generation that has come to discover the show in the years since it last appeared on TV. The highly anticipated return of this show is sure to make history all over again."

Hurwitz added, "Ted said that? Wow. Well don’t print this obviously, but he’s going to be immensely disappointed," before adding, "in truth we are doing something very ambitious that can only be done with Netflix as partners and on their platform. Finally my simple wish for the show is coming true: that it be broadcast every second around the clock to every television, computer or mobile device in existence."

Arrested Development - which follows Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his eccentric family - was cancelled by Fox in 2006 after three seasons, six Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. Six years later Netflix picked up the show for a fourth season, with filming commencing last August.

The new series will see former stars Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Will Arnett, Tony Hale, Portia de Rossi, David Cross and Alia Shawkat all reprise their roles, revisiting the family seven years after the original run ended with each new episode focusing on a different character's point of view.