Charlize Theron Would Love to Return to Arrested Development

The new season of Arrested Development could see the return of a season 3 favorite, that is if Charlize Theron gets her way. At San Diego Comic Con, the Atomic Blonde actress confirmed her interest in reprising her role of Rita Leeds for season five, during Entertainment Weekly’s Women Who Kick (Butt) panel in Hall H.

“I won an Academy Award and 5 days later was making Arrested Development, that’s still one of my proudest moments,” Theron said before telling the audience that she would love to reprise the role of Rita if the show runners asked her to. Her character was certainly one of the highlights of season 3, a British woman who viewers believed was a spy and was briefly engaged to Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) before it was revealed she was actually a MRF (“Mentally Retarded Female”).

It’s not the first time Charlize has shown interest in returning to the critically-acclaimed comedy series. In 2012, while promoting Snow White and the Huntsman, the actress told VH1:

“I would love to, but I also don’t want to crash the party. I think those characters are so great, but yeah, if they wanted me to come by for a day, I’d love to do that. And if they paid me well because, you know, that’s important too.”

“Netflix picked up Arrested Development for a fourth season, which premiered in May 2013, after the show was initially dropped by Fox. While the show garnered a lot of positive reviews, critics did find fault with the fragmented narrative and the lack of actual screen time the original cast spent together. However, season 5 should see a return to structural form, that is according to Gob actor Will Arnett, who said the highly-anticipated new season will be “much like the original broadcast series” and the cast will spend “much more” time together.

One of the greatest aspects of Arrested Development is its ability to take a guest appearance and flip it into something the viewer wouldn’t expect. When Theron made her appearance as Rita, right after winning the Best Actress Oscar for Monster, it was the complete opposite of what she was most famous for.  Even if her wacky character showed up for just one episode, it would be an excellent nod to the original run as well as an opportunity to reintroduce old jokes – which we know the show just loves to do.

The fact that the new season is going to be centred around the plot “Who Killed Lucille 2?” could also be a great way of bringing Theron back, too. The murder-mystery plot from season 4 saw Buster arrested for the crime, but the rest of the Bluth family – as well as others – set up as potential suspects. Who knows? Maybe Rita could have some history with Lucille and also become a person of interest. We’ll have to wait and see until Arrested Development returns to Netflix in 2018.