'The Americans' TCA panel Getty Images
"We've been stuck on this one idea for, like, three years," said executive producer Joel Fields at TCA.
As The Americans approaches its final two seasons, the showrunners of the FX spy drama already have an end game in mind.
"We've been stuck on this one idea for, like, three years," said executive producer Joel Fields at the Television Critics Association summer press tour of ending the series starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys.
Co-showrunner and series creator Joe Weisberg acknowledged on stage that the plan isn't necessarily set in stone. "We always talk about the fact that we wouldn't be surprised if this idea that we're stuck on changed — and now's the time," he said.
Fields added that it would be in line with their usual writing process. "We tend to be many scripts ahead and we really look forward, and at the same time we try to be very open to things unfolding in surprising ways even to us," he said.
In addition to the series' conclusion, the pair also fielded questions about the upcoming fifth season of the drama. And true to form, they remained tight-lipped about any upcoming plot points.
They did, however, offer up some vague details about the fifth season. "The stuff that's been percolating and brewing for so long about the Paige recruitment between Philip and Elizabeth and Paige, the three of them struggling and that triangle is finally going to come to a boil," said Weisberg.
"The suspicions that have been percolating between the Jennings and their across-the-street neighbor, they are going to get more suspicious but in some unexpected ways," offered Fields, who also noted that the writers had to map out both the fifth and sixth seasons in order to be able to actually write season five.
They also revealed that the next two seasons will introduce a few new characters, given that the series lost two regulars (Nina's Annet Mahendru and Martha's Alison Wright) but not many. Said Fields: "It makes room for the final act."
The Americans
