HBO orders two seasons of animated comedy from Archer trio

Animated spy comedy Archer

Skydance-owned US premium cablenet HBO has commissioned two seasons of half-hour animated comedy series Merrick & Treves.

The series is co-created and executive produced Adam Reed, Casey Willis and Lucky Yates, who previously worked together on long-running FX adult animation Archer.

Reed created espionage comedy Archer, which ran between 2009 and 2023, while Willis was an executive producer and Yates was part of the main voice cast.

Merrick & Treves comes from TFC Productions. Joel Begleiter will also executive produce, with Kelly Wu as co-executive producer.

Set inside Queen Victoria’s top-secret Royal Temporal Constabulary, the show follows a team of unlikely heroes as they voyage back and forth through time in an effort to stop Jack the Ripper.

Amy Gravitt, exec VP of HBO Programming and head of HBO and HBO Max comedy series, said: “Adam, Casey and Lucky are exceptional comedic talents whom we have admired for years. We couldn’t be more excited to team up with them to bring the wholly original Merrick & Treves to HBO audiences.”