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WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Archer’s Season 12 Two-Part Premiere, “Identity Crisis” and “Lowjack,” which aired Aug. 25 on FXX
The cast of Archer has traveled across the globe — and beyond — in its beloved decade-plus run. Season 12 will reunite Sterling Archer, Lana Kane, and the rest of the crew formerly known as the spy organization ISIS into a grounded world that has largely left them behind. However, there are still some edges to the central cast and their pasts that will cause some serious chaos on an international scale. One person particularly excited to see how these spy-craft antics play out is voice actor Lucky Yates, who portrays Archer‘s mad genius, Dr. Krieger.
To celebrate the twelfth season of Archer, Yates will be speaking with CBR following each new episode of the season. Yates will dive into the unique twists and unlucky breaks that befall the cast as they try to navigate the increasingly unpredictable world of spy-craft. Ahead of the two-episode season premiere — “Identity Crisis” and “Lowjacked” — on FXX, Yates delved into Kriger’s best pairings and revealed which DC character Krieger is deathly jealous of.
CBR: Last year brought Archer a back-to-basics approach to spy-craft, but this year is complicating it a bit in an interesting way or two. I really love the genuine budget crisis that the team has to deal with now.
Lucky Yates: Just showing that we do nothing but waste money. When it comes down to it, we’re really a janky operation. We are way behind the times, the weird sort of ‘when does this happen exactly’ bit is well served. Also, throwing in [the main cast] so far behind the times, that is how things really happen out there… It’s really great. Seeing the whole gang brought down almost all the pegs. It’s been really awesome. It’s where we should be.
CBR: Besides perhaps Archer’s liver, no one is going to be more affected by this budget crisis than Krieger.
Yes, but I feel like Krieger has plenty of side hustles that fund whatever he really needs. He just likes it being official, dark science… It’s always better if you can claim it and write it off or something, as opposed to trying to hide it all.
CBR: One of the things that is really exciting — which hasn’t been kind of an element of the show since all the way back with Odin — is the idea that maybe some of the team might get tempted to leave. Ray and Lana both kind of expressed, “We might be up to go with this other organization” idealogy. Is Krieger also the kind of guy who’s also going to have those thoughts or is he full-ride or die team Spies and Dolls?
That is such a good question. He would definitely go wherever he was freest to do his thing, probably Spies and Dolls or the agency or whatever. Where did we land on? I would assume as long as he could keep pulling money, he’s definitely in. He is completely chaotic neutral, whereas he’ll just go with whatever is best at the time. He’s not really thinking about it too long. Whatever he can get away with the most. I would say going to the new sleek organization would just be too… I think he’d probably be like everybody stop there. Just go away. They won’t ever let me work on my thing, figuring out the Anti-Life Equation.
CBR: That’s my new head-canon, anytime we don’t see Krieger it’s because he’s researching Darkseid.
He just wants those zig-zaggy laser beams to shoot out of his eyeballs. He’s jealous of Darkseid. Wouldn’t you be?! Look at that awesome planet he gets to rule over!
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CBR: It really seems, especially in the first two episodes of the season, like an overarching theme of the season might be the idea of “Spies with Souls” — which is going to be tricky for every member of this weirdo jackass crew of spies.
It is. It sort of is the theme of the whole show. There are these complete assholes, but ultimately, it’s this family who really does care about one another and would 100% put their lives on the line for each other above all else. It’s just kind of tapping into the very sort of soul of the entire thing, of going that’s just your agency, except that their exterior is so awful that trying to convince the world that they actually do care about things is going to be very difficult. The way they go about things is just the worst. I love it. It’s so much fun. It’s still so much fun. I laughed so much during these first two episodes.
CBR: Krieger is not the field agent. He’s not usually the active member of the plot. He usually ends up kind of… The way I wrote it down, he’s usually paired with the spares. Whoever’s not in the field today, that’s who Krieger’s going to be messing with. This typically ends up being Cheryl or Pam or Mallory. Which of the main crew though, of Archer, Lana, Cyril, Ray… They’ve all clearly done a lot of stuff with Krieger over the years, but which one of them would you love to just put in a room with Krieger for an episode, they just get locked in a room for a whole episode?
Krieger and Archer are kind of buds. When the show first started, the first three episodes or whatever, when Krieger didn’t talk, he was just sort of… Archer would just go and barf shit onto him, basically just his sounding board to get rid of his angst. Krieger would just sit there weirdly. I think this season, I don’t think I’m spoiling anything. I think we get a good… There’s an episode where there’s a lot of Krieger and Archer together. It’s amazing. The unstoppable force is Krieger and Pam though, I feel like. It’s the two wildest wildcards. Cheryl is a wild card, but she’s also really kind of dangerous, She needs responsible supervision. That is not Krieger.
CBR: Krieger and Pam, you’re right, are wildcards, but Cheryl is a force of nature.
Lucky Yates: She’s the John Cassavetes in The Dirty Dozen, that person’s who going to go off at some point and murder everybody. Deep cuts, today!
CBR: One of the biggest lingering questions going into this year is that it’s going to be the swan song for Jessica Walter (who passed away this past year) and her character of Mallory. And Krieger has always had such a surprisingly complex relationship with Mallory.
They do, really kind of BFFs. They’re secret BFFs almost. You just get little hints like them going to the theater, the movies together, that kind of stuff. It’s Krieger, whereas how much is he truly affected by it? How much can get past his clone programming?
CBR: We don’t even know if this is the real Kriger anymore, considering the clone subplot from Season 5.
[Series Creator] Adam Reed and I are the only ones who know what Krieger we have at this point. I don’t even know if [Adam] knows anymore. Our Executive Producers, they don’t know.
CBR: You are the Krieger keeper.
I should write it down, in case something happens.
CBR: This and last season are something of a return to classic Archer stylings after the experimentations of Seasons 8, 9, and 10. Is there an element of the new season, in broadest terms as possible, that is the thing that makes you really excited for audiences to see this season?
This season, I laughed so much. The writing still remains so great. It’s not just Adam Reed anymore. There are other writers involved. It’s just so much fun. The spirit of fun injected into this season, especially, is so huge. I’m just really super pumped for people to see it. Every script that I got, I laughed my ass off reading it. We had a blast doing recordings and watching the first couple of episodes. This show is still great. I’m really excited for people to see that we still got sass… you can tell them that they’re good writers, but they also really love the show and the characters and what they do best and all that kind of stuff. It just flies through… in every scene it’s them at their most. It’s so fun.
Archer Season 12 airs new episodes at 10 p.m. on FXX, which will be available to stream the next day via FX on Hulu.
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