'Arrested Development' to Introduce New Characters, Reveals Ron Howard

11:37 AM PDT 8/15/2012 by Philiana Ng

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The longtime narrator of the series says that the people involved with the revival are "in great form and dying to take the characters further."

Arrested Development Cast Ron Howard Inset - P 2012

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Arrested Development is back in full swing with the original cast, but as Ron Howard -- who played the part of narrator on the TV series during its Fox run -- revealed, expect some new faces to join the Bluths when the show premieres on Netflix.

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Though the Oscar-winning director was mum on details of the new creations, he promised that they will live up to the quirky cast of characters, led by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Portia de Rossi.

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"[Creator] Mitch [Hurwitz] isn't trying to recreate something," Howard told MTV News. "It's been away for a while, and part of the fun that Mitch has been mining and exploiting is, what's new to discover about these people? What's delightfully unchanged? He and the writing staff and the actors have a fantastic sense of that. They're pretty brazen, pretty bold and fearless. That's what made the show into something that fans really kept alive."

Howard reassured that the long and arduous journey (he called it "a hell of a hiatus") to reviving Arrested Development hasn't affected the quality of the output.

The people involved with Arrested Development are "in great form and dying to take the characters further."

He added: "It's cool and bold and funny, and out there taking chances, just like it always did."

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Since production began, photos of cast members have been floating around the Internet, including Bateman with TV son Michael Cera on the set and Cera's alter-ego George Michael on a Segway. Last month, Howard tweeted a photo of the first Arrested Development script, which de Rossi revealed in October contained a cover letter that said "no diva-type behavior, we're gonna not really have fancy trailers."

Arrested Development aired on Fox from 2003-06. It was announced in November that Netflix would air new episodes of the series' fourth season in 2013.

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com