A peek into season six of FX’s The Americans

The Americans take us behind the scenes into the production of season 6.

With the sixth and final season of The Americans right around the corner, there is a lot to anticipate when the spy thriller returns in just a week. To send off The Americans in the manner it deserves, the entire creative team was putting forth their best.

To get a glimpse into what was going down behind the curtain, showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields had Variety come check out what went on in production over the last six months.

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On October 13, 2017, Weisberg held a tone meeting to discuss the look and feel of season six before filming began. Season six will show a time jump of three years to 1987 and revolve around the frustration and exhaustion Elizabeth (Keri Russell) feels and Philip’s (Matthew Rhys) gloomy attitude.

While Fields and Weisberg were at the head of the conversation, Rhys stepped in to discuss his role as director for this season’s second episode.

On November 6, 2017, a meeting was held to discuss props, including that of a severed horse head costing $650/day to rent. Dan Fisher, the show’s prop guy, helped guide the meeting through for what was needed in the third episode of this season. The discussion included what size a rock needs to be to the types of cars needed to fulfill the feel of the 80’s.

A group of background actors regularly assist with this task by bringing their vintage cars to be used for a fee. A meeting to go over disguises took place as well, with the costume designer sharing the difficulties of season six–now that Paige has joined the family spy business, as well.

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On November 13, 2017, a producers meeting took place run by executive producer, Mary Rae Thewlis. Thewlis went over what was needed for a scene that was to be shot inside of a McDonalds. However, with the all the tiny nuances surrounding a 1980’s McDonald, the production decided to shift the scene to a pizza place.

Fast forward two months to the end of January and Variety joined in for an editing session with the editor, Amanda Pollack. As the editor, Pollack gathered the appropriate shots and worked with each episode’s director to finalize their material before taking it to the showrunners.

Weisberg and Fields come in to investigate every minute detail of every scene to ensure the feelings, emotions, and message come through with the character’s expressions.

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While the above is Variety’s sneak peek into all the work The Americans creative team has put into season six, seeing it come to life in just a week will be worth the wait!

The season six premiere of The Americans is on FX on March 28.