'Archer' Season 8 Goes Old Hollywood Noir

For its upcoming season, Archer will be going back in time. FXX released the first trailer for Archer Season 8, and along with its move to a new network — FX to FXX — Archer's also found itself in a new era. Archer and his band of mostly alcoholic misfits are placed in the middle of Los Angeles in 1947. The season even has its own new title — Archer: Dreamland — suggesting that it all might be taking place inside of spy-turned-private-investigator Sterling Archer's unconscious mind. (Lest you forget, the last we saw of Archer was his backside, floating in a pool, presumably dead.)

In fact, during an FX Comic-Con panel last summer, it was revealed that following his shooting, Archer will be comatose for three months. According to an exclusive trailer shown during that panel, Archer: Dreamland begins with Archer in a coma, present day. But, when Archer opens his eyes, it's not to wake up. He opens his eyes only to find himself transported to the 1940s. During that same Comic-Con, the show's creator (Adam Reed) and the show's EP noted that while the same characters will be present in Season 8, they will play altered versions of themselves. (Lana for instance, is a jazz singer.)

The synopsis for Season 8 (via Collider) reads:

Archer is an animated, half-hour comedy that revolves around the hardboiled private eye Sterling Archer and his quest to find his partner’s killer in 1947 Los Angeles. The case proves to be more difficult than expected after Archer quickly gets mixed up in a deadly game of tug of war between Los Angeles’ most powerful crime bosses. Every clue leads Archer further away from his goal and deeper into a mystery involving kidnapping, prostitution and drug addiction.

Check out the trailer below.

Archer creator Adam Reed teased the idea that things would be changing in September of last year. He said, per Deadline, "I was gonna end it after 8, but then I had sort of a brain explosion of a way that I could do three more seasons and really keep my interest up. So the three seasons that are coming up are gonna be pretty different from what has come before, and they’re gonna be different from each other."

Since Archer Season 7 ended on a life-or-death cliffhanger for the titular hero, Season 8 does what Reed promises. It's different than its predecessors (taking place in Archer's twisted head) and different from what's to come, as it appears this entire season will be a one-off story complete with lots of guns, '40s fashion, and a whole new plot. Though, rest assured, the quintessential Archer wit will still be present.

Presumably, Archer will wake up in time for Season 9. But, as Reed already warned, don't expect anything to be the same as it was before. The new, 1940s noir season premieres April 5 on FXX.