Adam Reed created one of the best adult animated sitcoms of all time with Archer, the FX show about bumbling secret agents that ran for 14 seasons between 2009 and 2023. Now he’s reuniting with Archer executive producer Casey Willis and star Lucky Yates for a new HBO television series.
HBO announced on Oct. 13 that it had ordered two seasons of Merrick & Treves, a half-hour animated workplace comedy following the secret agents of Queen Victoria’s Royal Temporal Constabulary as they hunt for Jack the Ripper. Reed, Willis, and Yates will all serve as co-creators and co-executive producers.
Archer started as a straightforward James Bond spoof but became far weirder and funnier as the show and its characters evolved. Reed and his writers experimented with numerous genres, including film noir and space opera as part of a multi-season arc where the eponymous spy Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) was in a coma.
The time travel plot makes Merrick & Treves sound more like Rick and Morty, which began as a parody of Back to the Future and Doctor Who before developing its own rich mythology. Rick and Morty has been running on HBO’s sibling network Adult Swim for nine seasons and kicked off its first spinoff, President Curtis, this year. HBO is clearly betting that a hybrid of two of the biggest hits in adult animation will attract a devoted audience ready to watch years of misadventures.
HBO hasn’t shared a release window for Merrick & Treves, so its release date depends on how far along the development process is.
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