There’s an end in sight for The Americans. FX’s Russian spy drama is about to head into season four, but The Americans showrunner Joel Fields revealed that the show might not last past season five or six.
“Honestly, I don’t think we yet know the answer to [when the show will end],” Fields said during the 2016 TCA Winter Press Tour. “I think what we do know is that this fourth season feels, if you think of a three act story structure, it feels like we’re coming towards the end of the second act. Whether it takes a fifth season or a fifth and sixth season to tell the rest of that story, we’ll discover as we start to dig into next season’s work which will happen as we dig out of this season. What we do know is that we have the support from the network to do what’s right for the show and to make those choices based on what’s important for the story and what we want to do creatively.”
When asked to elaborate on if that meant he and his co-showrunner Joe Weisberg were preparing to the end the story in the next two seasons, Fields didn’t have a concrete answer.
“I really don’t have an answer about how many seasons except that we’ll do what’s right for the storytelling,” Fields said. “We always seem to surprise ourselves. We often surprise ourselves in terms of how hard it is to make progress through our story. We’ll see. We think, ‘Oh, we’re going to make it to the fall of the Berlin Wall,’ and then we’ll get six scripts in and realized we’ve traversed seven days.”
The FX drama, which will return in March for season four, also debuted a new poster. Check it out below:
As for series star Keri Russell, although it was announced that she is expecting a baby with her co-star Matthew Rhys, her pregnancy won’t be written into the show.
“We haven’t made any changes based on the happy news,” Fields said. “It hasn’t impacted the story.”
What will impact the season four story is the fact that Elizabeth (Russell) and Philip’s (Rhys) daughter Paige (Holly Taylor) now knows her parents are undercover Russian spies, and doesn’t approve of their career choices and that will have a big impact on Elizabeth.
“The interesting thing for me this season has really been about opening Elizabeth’s perspective,” Russell said. “Generally, this season feels like it’s about the emotional cost in the people that all of these choices over the last three years has had on them. There is a big opening for Elizabeth in a new way, especially with Paige and seeing how it’s affecting her. I think that’s a very parent thing. You try your best and you think you know what’s right but you have no idea how they’re going o react as an individual. Between Paige’s fractures and Philip’s fractures, there is a bigger sensitivity to the fragility of her family this season.”
What are you most excited to see from The Americans this season?
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Images: FX
The Americans season four premieres on Wednesday, March 16 at 10 p.m. on FX.
