•Adam Reed, who created Archer, one of the most acclaimed adult animated sitcoms, is reuniting with executive producer Casey Willis and star Lucky Yates for a new HBO television series.
HBO announced on Oct. 13 that it had ordered two seasons of Merrick & Treves, a half-hour animated workplace comedy following the secret agents of Queen Victoria’s Royal Temporal Constabulary as they hunt for Jack the Ripper. Reed, Willis, and Yates will all serve as co-creators and co-executive producers.
Archer, which ran on FX for 14 seasons between 2009 and 2023, started as a straightforward spoof but became stranger and funnier as the show and its characters evolved. Reed and his writers experimented with numerous genres, including film noir and space opera, as part of a multi-season arc in which the eponymous spy Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin) was in a coma.
The time travel plot makes Merrick & Treves sound more like Rick and Morty, which began as a parody of Back to the Future and Doctor Who before developing its own rich mythology. Rick and Morty has been running on HBO’s sibling network Adult Swim for nine seasons and kicked off its first spinoff, President Curtis, this year.
HBO is clearly betting that a hybrid of two of the biggest hits in adult animation will attract a devoted audience ready to watch years of misadventures.
When will Merrick & Treves be released?
HBO hasn’t shared a release window for Merrick & Treves, so its release date depends on how far along the development process is. Adult Swim announced President Curtis in July 2025 and the show premiered about a year later. James Gunn and Dean Lorey’s HBO Max series Creature Commandos was announced in January 2023 and premiered in December 2024.
That means viewers will likely be able to start watching Merrick & Treves on HBO Max in late 2027 or early 2028.
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