ARCHER Producers Want Jon Hamm to Play The Super Spy in Live-Action Movie

Archer just aired its seventh season finale this past week, capping off a season that was a massive improvement over last year. I appreciate that the show hasn't grown complacent and seems to continually attempt reinvention, and while it has occasionally stumbled a bit on that path, this season — in which the gang moved to Los Angeles and opened a private investigator's office — was one of its best yet.

The Daily Beast spoke with executive producers Matt Thompson and Casey Willis about the possibility of converting the animated spy series into a live-action movie:

“It’s all up to whatever [Archer creator] Adam [Reed] wants to do, but he and I have definitely talked about it. I think we talk about it once every two years. We vacillate between if you do it, why are you doing the TV show? And should it be live-action, or should it be cartoon? The talk is there, we just still haven’t decided. I don’t think there will be a movie before the last episode of Archer airs on TV. I don’t think we’ll make a movie before the series finishes.”

Let's assume a movie actually does happen one day. Who would they want to slip into the immaculately tailored suit of Sterling Archer?

“It’s Jon Hamm,” says Thompson, firmly. “If Archer goes live-action, I do believe it will be Jon Hamm. Maybe you could do it with Jon Benjamin’s voice coming out of him? I don’t know. Adam is always like, ‘I don’t know if I want the movie to be live-action because I want it to be Jon Benjamin!’ But if it is live-action—and if it is not Jon Benjamin—it is our greatest hope that it would be Jon Hamm. I can say that with confidence.”

Hamm is an excellent choice. We already know he has the look, but I think comedy is his secret weapon; many people still associate him with the stoic Don Draper, but he's been absolutely hilarious in shows like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, so I think he'd be a natural for delivering the kind of comedy that defines Archer. But as great as Hamm might be by himself, I have to admit the idea of seeing him with H. Jon Benjamin's voice coming out of him is so ridiculous it just might work.