Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Archer has developed one of the most fervent fan bases in all of television over the course of its first seven seasons. FX’s animated (in every sense of the word) spy spoof is debuting its eighth season in January 2017, and Decider —New York Comic Con‘s official correspondent— caught up with the cast last night just before they headed over to the Hammerstein Ballroom for a sold-out extravaganza. Decider’s host, Katie Linendoll, did her best to get the cast to spill some beans about the show’s new “Dreamland” season. And beans, trust you me, did spill. (“Lana!”)
“We’re going back to 1947,” Archer producer Matt Thompson explained to us. “Archer is a private detective, and all the characters that we know coming back, but they’re all slightly different.” For example, Krieger is now a “bartender slash heroin dealer slash sort of back alley doctor?” (as Lucky Yates hilariously put it), Pam Poovey (Amber Nash) is “living as a man now,” and Mother (Jessica Walter) is no longer Archer’s mother, but she’s still named Mother (and now just so happens to be an all-powerful crime boss). Alrighty then! (“Lana!”) But Aisha Tyler assures us we shouldn’t worry. “No, it’s the same show. It’s the same Coke that you’ve always loved. The same formula; it tastes the same.”
When your show develops a reputation as a cult favorite, well-intentioned super fans can sometimes go to the well a few times too often (“Lana!”) asking the actors to repeat certain lines for them. “I think it’s ‘Lana’ – ‘Lana, LANA!’,” Amber Nash said. “I think that’s the one.”
“People want me to just say ‘Lana,'” series star H. Jon Benjamin admitted.
“It doesn’t feel as exciting to you [Jon], as it does to them,” Aisha Tyler quipped. (Ed. Note – Oops, guilty as charged!)
Aside from its hilarious catchphrases, the show has built a reputation for weaving in many intricate references and callbacks into the show’s plot and dialogue, some of which the cast doesn’t even know about until after they’ve recorded their lines. Credit the show’s executive producer, Adam Reed. “He’s so erudite,” the goddess Jessica Walter told us. “He’s so well-read that a lot of the references are very obscure. I’ve had to look them up.”
“I’m gonna go look up ‘erudite’ right now,” Lucky deadpanned.
Archer‘s eighth season, “Dreamland,” will premiere in January on FX. Until then…
LANA!
(We couldn’t resist!)
For more coverage of all things New York Comic Con, stay tuned all weekend long to Decider.com/NYCC.
