Arrested Development’s Tony Hale Talks Buster’s Shocking Reveal in Finale

Tony Hale’s animated show, Archibald’s Next Big Thing Is Here, is now available to watch on Peacock. In honor of the cartoon chicken’s debut on the streaming service, ComicBook.com recently had a chat with Hale about Archibald, his character in Harley Quinn, the relatability of Toy Story 4‘s Forky, and more. Obviously, you can’t talk to Hale without discussing Arrested Development. Hale played the lovable Buster Bluth for all five seasons of Arrested Development, and the finale on Netflix revealed a shocking truth about the character: he killed Lucille Two (Liza Minnelli). We asked Hale what he thought about the character’s hilariously dark ending.

“Well they had a really tumultuous love affair as well,” Hale said of Buster and Lucille Two. “So there’s a lot of history there, but very much in Arrested Development fashion, I had no idea what was happening. So we would get just pieces of the story as we were going on. And then I remember reading that last script and I was like, ‘Wow, we took a dark turn.’”

Hale continued, “I didn’t really know that he had done it until the end. But that also reminds me of when I remember, before his hand came off by the seal, I remember there were a lot of hand chairs around, like hand signs. And I was like, ‘What’s up with the hand? Like, why is everything so hand-related?’ And Mitch [Horowitz] is like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ Cut to me getting a script. It’s like ‘hand’s coming off.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ But that wasn’t until I actually got the script. So it was always full of surprises.”

During the interview, Hale also explained why Archibald’s Next Big Thing Is Here means a lot to him.

“I’m crazy about this chicken. He just sees the best in everyone and the best in every situation. He’s funny. He makes a lot of mistakes but he doesn’t let it get him down. And after the year we’ve all had, it’s like I could use a little, I mean I think we could all use a little more Archibald in our lives, you know, he’s the best,” Hale shared. “Archibald is someone who I do aspire to be. I want to learn from my mistakes and I want to see the world the way Archibald sees it.”

You can watch our full interview with Hale at the top of the page!

Archibald’s Next Big Thing Is Here premieres on Peacock on February 18th and features the voices Tony Hale, Jordan Fisher, Adam Pally, Chelsea Kane, Kari Wahlgren, and Casey Wilson.