Archer Fans Just Got Some Bittersweet News About Season 13

It's been a difficult Season 12 for "Archer" fans. The outrageous FX animated action-comedy has recently returned to the airwaves, but that return came with the knowledge that this would be the final time series devotees would hear Jessica Walter provide the voice of the acerbic and alcoholic Malory Archer. Sterling Archer's (H. Jon Benjamin) and head of an occasionally competent spy team, Malory, was coolly competent, where Archer was arrogant and lackadaisical. During the show's run, she drove multiple plotlines, including the story of her marriage to used car salesman Ron Cadillac (Ron Leibman — Walter's real-life husband) which caused Archer to develop amnesia.

Walter had completed work on Archer's twelfth season before passing away in her sleep at the age of 80 on March 25. That means fans of the show haven't had to say goodbye to Malory yet. But a new announcement for FX means that they're getting ever closer to that farewell. Here's the bittersweet news that has fans of the show smiling through their tears.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Archer" has officially been renewed for Season 13. The series has already figured out a way to carry on without Malory, as THR notes the loss of Walter will be "creatively addressed" in upcoming episodes. Variety adds that the already-airing Season 12 will confront the character's absence. This isn't the first time the "Archer" crew has dealt with the death of a regular member of its voice cast.

Per Variety, on July 18, 2015, George Coe, who voiced Sterling Archer's subservient butler Woodhouse for the series' first seven seasons, passed away at 86. The show handled his death by having Woodhouse die offscreen during the show's eighth season. Archer, who was comatose at the time, absorbed the news of Woodhouse's passing while unconscious, influencing his dream state. The entire eighth season featured an alternate reality of Archer's dream as he imagined himself as a private detective searching for Woodhouse's killer. We expect "Archer" to give Malory a send-off that's just as entertaining.