After introducing its slate for the upcoming fall season (and offering assurance that, yes, there’s still too much TV), FX Networks set aside a pair of panels to commemorate its shows that just pulled in an armful of Emmy nods: The Americans and The People V. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Showrunners Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg were in attendance to discuss their Emmy nominee for Outstanding Drama Series, answering questions about The Americans’ final two seasons as best they could—i.e. without giving too much away.
While some coyness was to be expected (From Weisberg: “The stuff that’s been percolating and brewing for so long about the Paige recruitment, the three of them struggling, is really finally going to come to a boil”), the duo were able to offer some precise details about seasons five and six, specifically that Margo Martindale and Frank Langella will return as KGB handlers Claudia and Gabriel. In July, Beloved Character Actress Martindale received her fourth consecutive guest-actress Emmy nomination based on 90 seconds of “The Magic Of David Copperfield V: The Statue Of Liberty Disappears,” but the showrunners said she’ll have a bigger story in season five. “It’ll be multiple scenes,” Fields said, “so her Emmy’s up for grabs.”
Other signs of life confirmed in the panel: Martha is alive in Russia, while Mail Robot is still in play—though Weisberg and Fields hadn’t thought about the future of their beloved character prop until it came up in the panel. These and other details are contained in a massive document used by the showrunners to map out the final seasons, the sort of precious cargo that cannot be trusted to potentially traitorous postal AI.