Over the last seven seasons Sterling Archer and his rag tag band of misfit co-workers have gone on more adventures than we can count. They’ve fought spies, run drugs, and even become old Hollywood private detectives. However, the hard drinking, womanizing badass has yet to make the jump to live-action. That’s something that the producers of the FX series have long considered, and as it turns out: they have a specific actor they want for the role of the titular spy.
Archer Executive Producer Matt Thompson recently spoke to The Daily Beast and admitted that they have a particular actor in mind to embody Sterling Archer if they ever decide to make a live-action film:
If Archer goes live-action, I do believe it will be Jon Hamm. Maybe you could do it with Jon Benjamin’s voice coming out of him? I don’t know. Adam is always like, ‘I don’t know if I want the movie to be live-action because I want it to be Jon Benjamin!’ But if it is live-action—and if it is not Jon Benjamin—it is our greatest hope that it would be Jon Hamm. I can say that with confidence.
It’s not hard to see why they would want Jon Hamm to step into the role of Sterling Archer for a live-action adaptation of the Archer series. The physical resemblance between Hamm and the FX James Bond spoof is nothing if not uncanny. However, they would potentially consider still keeping H. Jon Benjamin around to dub in the voice, because Archer’s voice, in many ways, has become one of the most iconic facets of the character.
Aside from the immense physical similarities between Jon Hamm and Sterling Archer, it’s hard to deny that Hamm has become one of the most consistently reliable comedic actors working today. Between films like Bridesmaids, and TV series such as Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (to name a couple) he has perfected the art of the dry, cocky line delivery for a loveable douchebag. That pretty much matches a description of Sterling Archer to a T. Even if H. Jon Benjamin didn’t dub in the lines, Hamm could still effectively nail the character without the iconic voice.
Just check out this compilation of Archer one-liners below. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine the former Don Draper donning a suit again to take on this type of character:
If Archer ever does get a live-action adaptation, then we can think of no better actor to take on the role than Jon Hamm. For now, we will just have to contend with the always-hilarious cartoon version of the character.
