Entertainment

What Will 'Archer' Do Now That ISIS Can't Be ISIS?

by Rachel Paige

The International Secret Intelligence Service, better known as ISIS, went through a little bit of an identity crisis this past year. The biggest blow to the spy agency came when they learned that some rude terrorists overseas had stolen their name — not cool, you guys. Considering that even I was a little wary to make a well placed ISIS + Archer joke for the past few months, you can only imagine how the folks actually behind the FX show felt. They're going into Archer S eason 6 sans the spy agency's moniker, so what will Archer call ISIS now?

This might be the first time a show has created a fake agency, that then came to be a real world wide terror. "Back in Season 5, FX said, 'This might be a thing,' and I thought, 'Maybe it won't be? Maybe it'll be the mole that I'm gonna ignore and nothing will happen,'" Creator Adam Reed told the Daily Beast. Well, lots of stuff did happened, and suddenly it was like, well, a really big ISIS in the room that no one wanted to address. Archer has been using the name ISIS for the past five seasons, going all the way back to 2010. Five years ago, who honestly could have predicted that a real world ISIS would become a worldwide threat?

Archer went to Comic Con this past summer, and took with it the first episode of Season 6 — a version that still had ISIS all over it. Since then, the team behind the FX show has gone back and scrubbed all mentions and visual references to ISIS out of that first episode — and all future episodes. No one is going to talk about ISIS anymore, period.

Those who have been privy to a preview of Season 6 report that the only ISIS reference is that of a bunch of workmen slowly moving the ISIS logo out of the office, while Malory Archer explains to her son that they're now run by the CIA. “We won’t say ISIS anymore, and the only visual representation of it will be that sign rolling off the show,” Reed explained.

As for what the agency will be called now remains to be seen. The beginning of Season 5 had ISIS being broken up by the CIA, and by the end of the season they had been brought back into the CIA — but are still not exactly government officials. So will Lana, Cyril, Cherlene and Pam start calling themselves CIA agents, or will Archer think up something much cooler for them? (Here's hoping for the latter.)

It also remains to be seen what exactly will happen to all of the remaining ISIS merchandise, because according to Reed they "have a lot of ISIS merchandise."

Image: FX Networks; Giphy (2)