UPDATE: Collider had a chance to speak with showrunner Adam Reed shortly before the Comic-Con panel. He shed some light on new developments for season 6. For one, guest voice-actress Alison Tolman will be playing Pam’s sister in an episode when, “They go home for Pam’s sister’s wedding, and she takes Archer as her date. And then things go…horribly wrong.”
Additionally, expect more of everyone’s favorite cyborg. Barry’s back, said Reed:
“Barry comes back in a big way. And he’s gonna be, I think, probably the key villain of the season. But things pretty quickly go really badly also for Barry…physically.”
ORIGINAL: “Lana? Lana? [deep breath] LANAAAA!” “WHAT?” Oh right – now that I’ve got your attention, Archer came to Comic-Con this year, and it was pretty awesome. At the panel, audiences got a sneak peek at the opener for the beloved spy comedy’s upcoming sixth season and then got a Q&A session with voice-actors H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Chris Parnell, Judy Greer, Amber Nash and Lucky Yates, plus creator Adam Reed and co-executive producer Casey Willis.
So, what dirt on season 6 emerged? Well, sorry to confirm news most of us already knew was coming, but Archer: Vice has had its fun, and the new season will find the ISIS team returning to their usual spy office. Why? “We ran out of cocaine!” Reed exclaimed. “We treated Season 5 as a vacation,” he said. “We’re happy to be home, and we’re excited to get back to what we normally do after a fun summer of cocaine.”
In the screened footage, which was the entire first episode of the upcoming season, the core cast members return to a digitized version of their office, with Lana lugging along her new baby Abbiejean. Meanwhile, Archer, clad in Army fatigues, is busy becoming buddies with a Japanese despot as bombs rain down upon the island they’re stranded on. As you might gather from that description, Archer’s still fighting hard to stop Lana from turning him into a better, more responsible person.
Christian Slater is confirmed to be returning as the CIA agent Slater, with whom ISIS will be working on missions during season 6. Additionally, Alison Tolman (FX’s Fargo) will be stopping in to lend her voice to Pam’s sister Edie. No specifics yet on what her involvement in the plot will be, but that casting alone is terrific. We don’t know that much else about season 6, but expect Lana’s baby to come into contact with the wee baby Seamus, Gary Cole to return as Agent Holly and Pam to get back to her farm roots (likely in the episode which features Tolman).
Archer returns to FX next year.