FX orders spy drama 'The Americans' with Keri Russell to series

Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys in FX's "The Americans."

Credit: FX

FX has ordered the '80s spy drama "The Americans" to series, which will bring Keri Russell back to television sometime in early 2013.

"The Americans," created by "Falling Skies" writer Joe Weisberg, stars Russell and Matthew Rhys as a pair of KGB agents posing as American newlyweds in Washington, D.C. at the dawn of the Reagan presidency. Noah Emmerich co-stars as one of their new neighbors, who happens to be an FBI counter-intelligence agent.

The series is executive produced by "Justified" showrunner Graham Yost and has a pilot directed by Gavin O'Connor

“We’re proud to welcome 'The Americans,'" FX president John Landgraf said in a statement, adding that the series "crackles with incredible performances rooted in character perspectives never explored on a U.S. television series, to FX’s line up of quality dramas.  We’re equally excited to welcome Graham Yost’s talented young Padawan Joe Weisberg as creator/showrunner. He joins a long line of gifted writer/producers who have taken their first shot at greatness on FX."

This will be Russell's first TV series since the short-lived FOX sitcom "Running Wilde."

"The Americans" joins an FX drama lineup that includes "Justified" (returning in January) "Sons of Anarchy" (returning in September) and "American Horror Story" (returning sometime this fall). FX has another drama pilot in the works for "The Bridge," adapted from the Scandinavian series "Bron," centered on a pair of cops from the U.S. and Mexico who investigate a dead body found on the bridge connecting El Paso and Juarez, but that's still a ways away from being considered for a series pick-up.

Alan Sepinwall
Sr. Editor, What's Alan Watching

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Alan Sepinwall has been reviewing television since the mid-'90s, first for Tony Soprano's hometown paper, The Star-Ledger, and now for HitFix. His new book, "The Revolution Was Televised," about the last 15 years of TV drama, is for sale at Amazon. He can be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com