Well it seems like Archer is about to finish.
Er, phrasing.
Sorry, as huge fans of the FX spy cartoon we should know better, but we aren’t exactly thinking clearly after hearing this bummer of an announcement that Archer will likely be calling it a wrap after season 10.
We first came across this news at the AV Club, and it comes from show creator Adam Reed‘s appearance on the Murmur podcast from Modern Film School, where he said that he is planning on the recently signed three season extension to be the final one for the show, though he apparently hasn’t mentioned that to anyone before now. Archer completed its seventh season earlier this year, with (SPOILER ALERT) Sterling Archer floating in a pool, seemingly dead, though with Dr. Kreiger around–and three more seasons to go–we don’t imagine the title character having died will stop him from being alive again. Cyborg Archer would definitely suffer from some conflicted emotions.
This news could have been worse, as Reed (who also voices Ray Gillette on the show) said he originally intended for the upcoming eighth season to be the last one, but that he “had sort of a brain explosion of a way” to do three seasons instead. He also added the remaining seasons will be “pretty different from what has come before, and they’re gonna be different from each other.” Each season will be truncated though, at only eight episodes a piece, so it’s okay to be relieved and a little sad about all of this.
Considering the show has stepped away from the spy world before, both with season five’s Archer Vice story line, where the group became horrible, inept drug dealers, and this last season, when they moved to Los Angeles and opened up a private detective agency, it’s not surprising that Reed will continue to have the show evolve and grow by changing up the focus and energies of the cast.
It’s actually too bad that the show already visited Reed’s other great animated show, Sealab 2021, because an entire season there would have not only been amazing, but put some renewed focus on one of the great, forgotten cartoons of all-time. Whatever Archer and the rest of the group ends up doing though, Reed overwhelmingly has our trust at this point. Archer is still as funny today as it has ever been.
Although, with only 24 episodes left in the run (and possibly, hopefully the potential one day for a live-action film starring Jon Hamm), it might be time for Reed to go back and explore a very old mystery, one that was a constant presence in the early seasons, but has been put aside recently: who is Archer’s father?
Would that be so hard? To finally finish that off? To give us a happy ending?
Er, again, sorry, phrasing.
But what do you make of this news? What do you think the final three seasons might look like? And what stories do you hope they go back and wrap up? Tell us your thoughts to all of these questions in the comments below.
Images: FX
