HBO announced on Oct. 13 that it has ordered two seasons of Merrick & Treves, a new animated comedy from the creative team behind Archer. The commitment covers the show before a single episode has aired, a rare move for a new series, according to Polygon.
Merrick & Treves is a half-hour animated workplace comedy centered on secret agents working for Queen Victoria’s Royal Temporal Constabulary. Their job: hunt down Jack the Ripper. The premise mixes historical crime with time travel, and Polygon described the result as something like “Rick and Morty meets Archer.”
The Merrick & Treves Two-Season Order And Creative Team
The series comes from co-creators Adam Reed, Casey Willis and Lucky Yates. Reed previously created Archer, the adult animated sitcom about a dysfunctional spy agency that ran for 14 seasons on FX between 2009 and 2023. Willis served as an executive producer on Archer, and Yates was one of its stars.
That shared history is likely why HBO felt comfortable backing two seasons of Merrick & Treves before launch. The network is working with a team that already built a long-running hit in the same genre, and the new show’s premise borrows from both Archer’s workplace-comedy spy format and the genre-bending, sci-fi-adjacent tone popularized by Rick and Morty.
What The Two-Season Bet Means For Fans
A two-season order gives Merrick & Treves a longer runway than most new animated series get. Shows typically have to prove themselves with a single season before a network commits further, so HBO’s decision signals confidence in the concept and the people making it.
For fans of Archer, the appeal is straightforward: three people central to that show’s success are reuniting on a project with a similarly irreverent premise. The time-travel element and historical setting give Merrick & Treves room to tell different kinds of stories than Archer did, while still leaning on the workplace-comedy structure that made the earlier show work.
Background And What’s Not Yet Known
HBO has not announced a specific release date or premiere window for Merrick & Treves. The network also has not detailed episode counts per season, and no cast beyond Yates has been confirmed.
Archer’s run from 2009 to 2023 established Reed, Willis and Yates as veterans of adult animation, and HBO’s willingness to order two seasons upfront suggests the network is treating Merrick & Treves as a flagship bet in that space rather than a trial run.
What’s Next
No premiere date has been set. Further details on casting, episode counts and a release window are expected to follow as production moves forward, though HBO has not provided a timeline for those announcements.
Don't stop here
Every Score. Every Story. One Home.
Breaking sports, entertainment and news from across the Total Apex network, updated all day.
Get the Full Story →
