Sterling Archer will spy no more. FX announced today that season 14 of the long-running animated comedy series Archer would be its last, but in a bid not to make us all turn into depressed alcoholics on the level of Archer himself, it also announced the final season’s premiere date. We will be getting more Archer on August 30, 2023, with two new episodes landing at 10 p.m. ET / PT on FXX and then coming to Hulu the day after (assuming it hasn’t already merged with Disney+ by then).
Archer season 14 coming so soon may be a bit of a surprise to folks as the show was never formally renewed after the 13th season concluded, but it’s been relatively well known that another season was coming, though not that it would be the last. The new season will find Lana at the helm of The Agency and discovering that maybe it isn’t so easy to be both good and make money as a secret spy organization. Given it’s the final season, we’ll hopefully also get some closure for Lana and Archer and their daughter.
Ratings were actually up for the 13th season over the 12th and it’s one of the few original shows on FXX, so the cancellation is probably coming from the creative side, not the network. It’s tough to run a show for 14 seasons, and to be honest, the series seemed to be running out of ideas as it went on. It was even supposed to end around season 10, not 14.
The show has been on a wild ride since kicking off as an off-kilter James Bond parody and eventually spending multiple seasons jumping into every action genre imaginable inside Archer’s head while he remained in a coma for years. The series struck a fantastic tone between sending up action/spy cinema and having a surprisingly deep and nuanced emotional punch that only got better as the show went on longer. Originally debuting in 2009, Archer has basically been a nonstop hit for FX and, eventually, its sister station FXX. It’s been a critical and award darling, winning the Best Animated Series Emmy in 2016 as well.
