Netflix has announced the cast of their upcoming Murderville Christmas special, and it features an Arrested Development reunion. The series, which is based on BBC Three's Murder in Successville, launched on the streaming service in February. It stars Will Arnett as Terry Seattle, a grizzled detective who leads celebrity guests including Kumail Nanjiani, Annie Murphy, Conan O'Brien, and Marshawn Lynch, through largely improvised murder mystery scenarios.
Per Variety, Netflix has announced that they will be following Murderville season 1 with a Christmas special, premiering on December 15. The plot of the episode will follow Seattle bringing on two new helpers to solve the mystery of who killed Santa. The guest stars this time around are SNL icon Maya Rudolph and Jason Bateman, who starred opposite Arnett on all five seasons of the cult sitcom Arrested Development.
Will Arnett and Jason Bateman Have a Very Fruitful Working Relationship
Bateman guest starring on the Murderville special likely won't come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the careers of the two actors. They didn't first collaborate until 2003 with the pilot of Arrested Development, which aired on Fox for three seasons through 2006 before being resurrected by Netflix for season 4 in 2013 and a split season 5 in 2018 and 2019. In between those seasons, they collaborated together as voice performers on the animated Fox series Sit Down, Shut Up in addition to executive producing the Morgan Spurlock documentary Mansome.
However, outside the TV and film space, Arnett and Bateman have struck gold with their latest collaboration as well. Along with Will & Grace star Sean Hayes, the pair host the podcast SmartLess, which involves one of the hosts bringing on a mystery guest for the other two to interview, and has aired more than 100 episodes since its launch on July 20, 2020. Previous guests have included Friends star Jennifer Aniston, Only Murders in the Building icon Martin Short, and President Joe Biden. The show, which won "Best Comedy Podcast" at the 2022 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards, will also be featured in a two-part documentary special following their 2022 tour, expected to air on Discovery+ later this year.
Fans of the podcast have likely wondered why Bateman and Hayes haven't already appeared on Murderville season 1. Now that their work schedules have aligned, it has allowed them to perform onscreen again for this brand new reunion. It will likely only be a matter of time before Hayes joins the series as well, perhaps in season 2, which has not yet been officially renewed by the platform. However, considering that they committed to this additional special, it's likely a Murderville season 2 announcement is coming soon.
Source: Variety