There’s been a lot of speculation of late about the fate of FXX’s Archer, the show that started as a spy comedy, and then they were cocaine dealers, and then they were detectives (twice!), and then the main character just sort of fell asleep. (Also: film noir, jungle adventures, and space.) Last year, series creator (and principal writer) Adam Reed told us that he’d be leaving the show at the end of its current 10th season, at the same time that its latest order of episodes was up. That, obviously, raised a lot of questions about where the show was heading (if anywhere), and whether it would climax before Sterling Archer’s day to awaken would ever come. (Phrasing! Space, and/or otherwise.)
All of which was apparently answered at the show’s panel at Comic-Con today, when executive producer Casey Willis revealed that not only is Archer coming back for an 11th season, but that the coma dream years are finally at an end; Sterling Archer is waking up, folks, and he’s going to be doing a whole bunch of spy shit again.
Given that your humble Newswire writer has been moonlighting as The A.V. Club’s regular Archer reviewer for the last four seasons, we’re well aware that the show’s “coma dream” seasons have been controversial among fans, some of whom have embraced the series’ rapidly shifting genre exercises, and others who have questioned what the point of it all has been. We reached out to FXX about whether Reed—who’s handed off writing duties for the series for the first time this season—is still planning to depart, now that the series that’s been his baby for the last decade is set to continue. They, in turn, directed us to this Entertainment Weekly interview with Willis and co-producer Matt Thompson, noting that, while Reed is only slated to write a single episode for the show’s 11th season, he’s still involved—including making the decision to wake Archer up, and the fact that he’ll now be so weakened by his time in the coma that he’ll be treated as useless by everyone around him. The duo was less clear, meanwhile, on whether the 11th season would be its last, but either way, it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles its hero’s return to reality after three seasons away.