Rick and Morty will live on (and on).
The Adult Swim cult comedy was greenlit for two additional seasons, ensuring it will now reach a 12th season and run through 2029. The announcement was made during a New York Comic Con panel, which featured series co-creator Dan Harmon along with showrunner Scott Marder and some key members of the show’s voice cast. “Nobody wants a universe without Rick and Morty. Fortunately, the list of places to go remains infinite,” said Harmon.
The series, which premiered way back in 2013, was previously greenlit through season 10, though, given the considerable lag time that animation requires, season eight has yet to air. The latter is set to roll out in 2025 and one of its episodes will feature a sneak animatic, which also debuted during the NYCC panel.
“From Season One, Rick and Morty set a new standard in adult animation and has shown no signs of stopping,” Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen added in a statement. “Dan, Scott and the rest of the immensely talented team behind Rick and Morty are constantly outdoing themselves and I’ll be joining the millions of fans around the world in looking forward to more adventures in the years to come.”
The renewal news arrives after the Emmy-winning comedy, which continues to be Adult Swim’s No. 1 show, underwent a considerable shakeup behind the scenes. Series co-creator Justin Roiland was ousted from the hit after an early 2023 NBC News report that said he’d been charged with felony domestic violence in connection with a 2020 incident. He was later cleared of said charges due to insufficient evidence, but Adult Swim had already severed ties, which included recasting his voice as both Rick and Morty.
In September of that same year, NBC News published a second report featuring nine separate accounts of his alleged misconduct, which ranged from sexual harassment to sexual assault. Roiland, who denied the allegations, had reportedly leveraged his affiliation with Rick and Morty and its runaway success on social media and dating apps to lure the women. At that point, Harmon, who had not commented publicly about the situation concerning his co-creator, opened up to THR.
“The easiest thing for me to say about Justin has been nothing. Easy because he isolated so well and easy because I’m nobody’s first choice as a judge of anything or anyone. This is where I’d love to change the subject to myself, to what a piece of crap I’ve been my whole public life,” he said as part of a 2023 cover story. “I would feel so safe and comfortable making this about me, but that trick is worthless here and dangerous to others. It’s other people’s safety and comfort that got damaged while I obsessed over a cartoon’s quality. Trust has now been violated between countless people and a show designed to please them. I’m frustrated, ashamed and heartbroken that a lot of hard work, joy and passion can be leveraged to exploit and harm strangers.”
In the meantime, production continued moving forward, with newcomers Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden tapped to voice the narcissistic, alcoholic genius Rick and his bumbling grandson Morty, respectively, ahead of season seven. According to many at the show, voice work had been the extent of Roiland’s contributions to the series for years. Marder, for his part, was brought it to be what Harmon once described as “a real showrunner” following season three, and, by all accounts, has provided the kind of structure and organization required for it to continue.
“I couldn’t be prouder to have taken this baton pass of a lifetime during Rick and Morty’s fourth season and get us to Season 10,” said Marder. “Getting to go beyond that now is such a gift I can’t wait to give our fans. Rick and Morty — a hundred years — forever!”
Source: Hollywoodreporter
