Rick And Morty will live on, but it’ll do so without co-creator Justin Roiland. That was the announcement made today by Adult Swim, with the official Rick And Morty Twitter account also stating that Adult Swim has “ended its association” with Roiland and that the show will continue, noting that “the talented and dedicated crew are hard at work on season seven.”
The Hollywood Reporter says that the characters Roiland voiced on Rick And Morty—most notably Rick and Morty—will be re-cast, which means this is going to be a significantly larger change to the show than just removing him as the co-showrunner and eliminating whatever influence he had on the writing process. Roiland is credited as the co-creator, and still will be going forward, but that means it’s unclear how much actual writing he used to do from episode to episode. Either way, Dan Harmon will now be the sole showrunner on the series, though THR says Roiland will “always be credited as co-creator.”
This major shake-up to what is inarguably Adult Swim’s most enormous hit currently on the air (and possibly of all time) comes after a report came out earlier this year that Roiland had been charged with felony domestic battery and false imprisonment over a complaint filed against him in May of 2020 by a woman he was dating at the time. For the record, Roiland’s attorney has claimed that the media’s coverage of the case has been “inaccurate,” explaining that Roiland is not only “innocent” but that they “have every expectation that this matter is on course to be dismissed once the district attorney’s office has completed its methodical review of the evidence.”
Adult Swim ordered 70 new episodes of Rick And Morty back in 2018, a number that should carry it through 10 seasons. With Roiland now out, it will presumably continue on with that order as planned. Meanwhile, there’s no word on what will happen to Hulu’s Solar Opposites, which Roiland also co-created and does a voice on.