HBO has commissioned two seasons of Merrick & Treves, a half-hour animated workplace comedy in which the secret agents of Queen Victoria’s Royal Temporal Constabulary travel through time while pursuing Jack the Ripper. The series brings together three people from Archer: its creator Adam Reed, executive producer Casey Willis, and star Lucky Yates. Reed, Willis, and Yates will all be co-creators and co-executive producers.
Although the time-travel premise suggests Rick and Morty, the new show’s creative team also has a close connection to Archer. Reed’s FX comedy about bumbling secret agents ran for 14 seasons, from 2009 to 2023. It began as a direct James Bond parody before taking a stranger turn, with Reed and his writers exploring styles including film noir and space opera. The space-opera material appeared in a multi-season storyline where Sterling Archer, played by H. Jon Benjamin, was in a coma.
Rick and Morty likewise started out parodying genres, including Back to the Future and Doctor Who, and later built its own mythology. It has been running for nine seasons on Adult Swim, a sibling network to HBO, and released its first spinoff, President Curtis, this year. HBO is wagering that combining two of adult animation’s biggest hits will draw a devoted audience willing to follow years of misadventures.
There’s no release window yet for Merrick & Treves from HBO; when it arrives will depend on the show’s progress in development. Two recent series provide a rough comparison. Adult Swim announced President Curtis in July 2025, and it debuted about a year afterward. Creature Commandos, the HBO Max series from James Gunn and Dean Lorey, was announced in January 2023 and premiered in December 2024. Those timelines suggest Merrick & Treves may reach HBO Max in late 2027 or early 2028.
