The cast and creators of FX’s adult cartoon Archer gathered for a hysterical panel at the Indigo Ballroom at Comic Con 2018. The panel began with a special Comic Con created vignette featuring Lucky Yate’s season eight character, the parrot Crackers. In the clip, Crackers gleefully jokes about being present from eighty years in the past. He also reveals his presence at Comic Con is in order to try out a variety of cosplay outfits. The big winner is Crackers as Thanos, accidentally snapping his fingers and causing all his feathers to fall out.
After that, the panel took time to remember some of their favorite moments from season eight, a bottle season entitled Archer: Danger Island. After that, Producers Matt Thompson and Chad Hurd revealed that season nine would center entirely around being in space. Officially titled Archer: 1999, the beloved characters formally of I.S.I.S. would instead be crew members of a deep-space vessel named MV Seamus (an apparent nod to Archer’s incorrectly identified son Seamus from season two). The cast has been slightly reimagined with Archer serving as the “rakish captain,” Lana Kane as his “ex-wife from a nasty divorce,” Cyril Figgis as the bothersome first mate, Cheryl Tunt as a devil-may-care hotshot pilot that really kind of hates being a pilot, Ray Gillette as “the universe’s loneliest courtesan” and Pam Poovey as some kind of “brutish allienoid.” Archer’s longtime nemesis Barry will be returning, only this time as bounty hunter named Barry 6.
One other significant piece of news came in response to a fan question regarding Archer’s true father. It was strongly hinted by the producers that at least the suggestion that Nikolai Jakov might have been Archer’s father was most likely a “red herring.” While fans asked numerous questions, the cast hilarious made jokes on everything imaginable. Lucky Yates in particular could not help himself and turned every moment into an opportunity for some kind of gag. Amber Nash had the “holy crap” joke of the panel when asked if Pam were to get another tattoo what would it be? She replied indicating that it w0uld most likely be two Betta fighting fish each tattooed on different sides of her labia.
Photo by Raymond Flotat