Come season 7, Sterling Archer and the gang will have a solution to being blacklisted and in need of income: They’ll open their own detective agency and work as private investigators. It won’t be in Hawaii like the agency in the ’80s crime drama, but the group will end up solving crimes on a case-by-case basis, much like Tom Selleck’s iconic character.
The idea of alluding to Magnum has been on the executive producers’ radar for years, but it had to fit the storyline. “We’d been talking about it for a while, but we didn’t know how to do it correctly or why to do it,” said co-executive producer Casey Willis. “It’s a great convergence of something we’ve always wanted to do and also being the right time to do it.”
The move to working in private investigation set up some fun changes with character dynamics. With his law degree, accountant Cyril Figgis is the only one of the bunch with the necessary qualifications to quickly become an investigator, putting him in the rare position of being the boss.
“Technically, Archer works for Cyril and is accumulating hours toward his own private investigator degree,” said co-executive producer Matt Thompson. “That obviously creates a lot of new, great tension, which is Cyril being the guy in charge.”
Though Figgis Detective Agency and the new setting are new, fans can expect much to stay the same. “This is another big departure for us, but it’s what I’d call change without changing,” said Thompson. “It’s important because our show survives and is good when all of our core characters are interacting with each other … Even though we’re moving to L.A. and they’re becoming private detectives, they’re still the same characters.”
Archer season 7 (with its Magnum P.I. inspiration) premieres on March 31 on FX.
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