'Archer' Producers Name Jon Hamm As Choice For Live-Action Movie

Trending News: Here's Who Would Play Archer In A Live-Action Movie

Why Is This Important?

Because Archer is probably one of the best animated TV shows ever created.

Long Story Short

Speaking with The Daily Beast, Archer producers Matt Thompson and Casey Willis dished on who they'd want to play the titular character in a live-action film. Unfortunately, no such thing will happen while the series is still airing.

Long Story

FX's Archer, the animated series that's basically about what James Bond would really be like if he actually existed, is one of the best shows on television period. It has compelling characters and is responsible for some of the most memorable one-liners and running gags in entertainment, and it manages to do all of this as an animated series. But what if it weren't animated, say, in the form of a live-action movie? Fans have wondered that since day one, and not just because they'd like to get a look at a real-life Lana Kane. Producers Matt Thompson and Casey Willis recently spoke with The Daily Beast ahead of Archer's season 7 finale, and they know exactly who they'd want playing the titular role in a live-action movie.

FX

“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.”

Not having H. Jon Benjamin, the actor who voices Archer but looks nothing like him, would be a huge blow to any live-action prospects. Benjamin's voice acting is arguably the lynchpin of the show, and it would be impossible to accept an actor, even Jon Hamm, as Archer without Benjamin's vocals. Thankfully (or maybe not?), they've thought of that too.

“We’re working on a way to create an H. Jon Hamm Benjamin hybrid,” Archer creator Adam Reed told The Daily Beast back in 2014. That would certainly be interesting, to say the least. Presumably they're talking about having Jon Hamm act the role, and having Benjamin dub his lines over Hamm in post production? It's hard to say how well that would work, and whether viewers (especially those familiar with both Hamm's work and Archer) could ever put the weirdness aside. We probably won't have to worry about it anytime soon, however. The movie's a common topic of conversation, but Thompson learned from Aqua Teen Hunger Force producer David Willis that doing a movie while a show's still airing isn't a great idea.

FX

“It’s all up to whatever Adam [Reed] wants to do, but he and I have definitely talked about it,” Thompson tells The Daily Beast. “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.”

For Archer fans, hopefully that's later rather than sooner.

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Jon Hamm is too old to play Sterling Archer.

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Sterling Archer's alias, "Chet Manley," is the name of the boy that drops four baby turtles into a sewer in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.