The animated spy series Archer has been renewed for a 13th season. Constantly praised by critics, the series has been nominated at the Emmys several times, and won on three occasions, including Outstanding Animated Program in 2016. The show parodies spy stories like the James Bond franchise, but has repeatedly and cleverly broken its own formula.

With the renewal, Season 13 will have to decide what to do about the character of Malory Archer, the mother of the title character, voiced by Jessica Walter, who tragically passed away earlier this year. Walter was able to record all voice work for her character on Season 12, which is currently airing. For Season 13, however, creator and showrunner Adam Reed will have to do one of two impossible choices: find another voice for a character that was turned into a fan favorite, or write her character off. If the past is any indication, the latter option seems most likely to happen. In 2015, actor George Coe passed away and his character Woodhouse was written off instead of recast.

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Image via FX

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When speaking to Collider last month, executive producer Casey Willis talked about Walter's passing and what it might mean for the story, and gave a little bit of an insight into where the story might go:

If we're lucky enough to get a Season 13, we have ideas of how we want to proceed with it. And we're talking about how the characters are going to react and how we even want to portray it. So I don't want to talk too much about it, because I don't want to jinx getting Season 13. But also I think the way we're going to handle it also, some of it's going to be revealed at the end of 12. But I think we've come up with some good ideas on how to handle it.

Aside from Walter, the voice cast from Archer also features H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Judy Greer, Chris Parnell, Amber Nash, Adam Reed, and Lucky Yates.

Archer is currently airing Season 12 on Wednesdays on FXX, and becomes available to stream the next day on Hulu. The eight-episode 13th season will premiere in 2022.

You can read the official synopsis for Archer here:

Archer is an animated, half-hour comedy that follows Sterling Archer as he navigates the changing landscape of the spy world. In the current season, Archer and gang face a new threat: a spy conglomerate known as IIA (International Intelligence Agency). With a limited number of spy jobs up for grabs, can The Agency compete against the soulless vultures of IIA, or will our mom-and-pop spy agency be the next to get swallowed alive?

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