Netflix is bringing back Arrested Development! After years of rumors—most recently of a "final season" in preparation for a movie—new episodes of the cultishly beloved sitcom will come to Instant Watch in early 2013. In one fell swoop, Netflix just won back the internet.

Yes, after months of taking abuse from people on its Facebook and Twitter accounts—some deserved, some not—Netflix went and did the only thing that could make the internet happy this side of "get everyone laid": bring back its favorite canceled TV show. (The streaming service likely spent a mint to do it, too, reportedly outbidding Showtime and Hulu.) The series would re-launch on Instant Watch, in the U.S. only, in 2013.

Still: before you start on your "INTERNET LOVE NETFLIX" banner, be aware that certain aspects of the production, like, for example, all the actors, are up in the air:

All of the series regulars have expressed interest in returning and are expected back, though no deals have been done. How that will work will be interesting given many of them are maintaing busy careers. "Arrested" player Arnett is currently on the NBC series "Up All Night" and another alum, Portia de Rossi, is attached to a high-profile project in development at the Peacock.

Where this leaves the proposed "Arrested" feature film isn't clear. While one source familiar with the project said it is currently in development at Fox Searchlight, another source at the studio denied it was an active project. Hurwitz's vision of the film was to schedule it after the series run in order to drive interest at the box office, but at the very least it seems that the film and TV aren't attached to each other.

Jason Bateman, who played Michael Bluth and has the busiest movie career besides Michael Cera, is excited—he Tweeted that he's never "been happier to wear a pair of khakis"—as is Ron Howard, the series' narrator and producer, who Tweeted, mystifyingly, a cell-phone picture of his computer screen displaying the news. And so are commenters on Netflix's Facebook page, where people are writing "Can't wait!" and "Redeemed," and "Yeah - give us back the cut rate pricing for the cut rate selections - then you might have some cash flow to work with to rebuild your business before someone else comes a long and puts the final nail in your coffin." Whoops! Guess not even Arrested Development can win back an angered internet.

[Variety]