The Nihilism of Rick and Morty Will Help The Show Survive Without Justin Roiland

Adult Swim announced Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland will no longer be associated with the show following news of his felony domestic violence allegations and he also resigned at Squanch Games, ending his involvement with High on Life. Rick and Morty will carry on by recasting voice actors while all other crew members continue to work on the show. That means co-creator Dan Harmon will become the sole executive producer of the show.

Dan and Justin have always been working partners for Rick and Morty, but the change doesn’t mean the show is “lost” or “dead” or “over.” It’s actually not so dramatic, so far as the creative vision and longevity of the show is concerned at least – Roiland is accused of very serious crimes, and that, in contrast, is dramatic. But what we’re talking about is Rick and Morty: could we lose what made it so special, so meaningful and hilarious if the name most closely associated with it gets taken off? Can it continue? Can it prosper? Can it fulfill its meta promise like another Harmon-helmed show?

Yes.

Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland have different styles and strengths. While Justin is often credited for the more bizarre, off-the cuff weird points, Harmon is likely responsible for the more meta jokes, definitely sharing DNA with his show “Community.” He has keenness for overarching structure, themes, and character, and he’s often credited with bringing the heart to the show. He’s well known for his work as a writer and executive producer for — as mentioned — Community, Channel 101, Harmonquest and HarmonTown, and others. He even has his own well documented “story circle” technique for plotting out episodes, not unlike Joseph Campbell’s famous method. Regardless, after working on more than six seasons — they both have a tremendously strong handle on what the show is, so it’s not a terrible danger that Harmon would “forget” without Justin’s guidance. 

On top of this, the show staff are not just now beginning work on Season 7. Harmon revealed to IGN in an interview in 2022 that they’re already a couple seasons ahead – this doesn’t necessarily mean being completely done and definitely doesn’t mean the animation is finished, but it does indicate that they at least know the direction the upcoming episodes will take, and it’s likely we won’t even notice a discernible change storywise for a while. And besides, it’s not like they worked alone. 

Harmon and Roiland are co-creators and have worked on several seasons of Rick and Morty, alongside many experienced creative professionals. 

It is possible that Roiland’s departure may not have a strong effect on the production moving forward at all.  A source close to the production confirms to IGN that, at least as of late, Roiland has had very little involvement creatively, and that Harmon appears to have more final say on scripts and animatics. Truly, the other people who work on the show deserve a lot of credit for making it what it is.

 There is an entire staff of producers, directors, animators, long-time behind the scenes people, and a writer list that features seven other names for Season 6. On top of that, there are talented main cast actors — Sarah Chalke, Chris Parnell, and Spencer Grammar — and it’s clear from interviews that they know the characters inside out and have evident synergy with each other and the other crew. 

Parnell himself has said in an interview with SyFy around the end of Rick and Morty Season 4, that both co-creators were at that point a little more hands off, and it’s true. Neither has directed an episode since the pilot and the last episode either got the main writing credit was the Season 3 finale, the Rickchurian Mortydate. Parnell said,  

“These days, usually, they’re not in the booth.[…] On the occasions when Dan has directed, he takes a lot of time with it.” He added Roiland is a bit more freewheeling.

So what I’m saying is, the rest of the people who make the show deserve a lot of credit too, and have already put in the work. Now, there is one very important thing that will be very noticeable right away, and we can’t not address it: the voices. 

Roiland has voiced a lot of Rick and Morty characters with many scenes that solely feature his voice across multiple characters. There’s Rick and Morty obviously, Mr Meeseeks, Mr. PBH, and an extremely long list of incidental characters. Still, there are a couple clear candidates now for recasting. There are already known impressionists like Sean Kelly aka Mortysays on Tiktok, as well as veteran voice actors like Billy West, Seth MacFarlane, and yes, even Harmon himself is apparently not bad at Rick’s voice.

But here’s the real reason Rick and Morty will be ok: the tones, themes and other cores of the show aren’t reliant on Justin Roiland and will remain in his absence thanks to all the other creators involved. The show is all about multiverses and possibility. The idea that literally anything is possible and millions upon billions of alternatives exist is clear. Like In this dimension, everything is a cobb; in that one everyone says “Parm-e-sian” and in this one…Rick and Morty sound slightly different.  Wilder things happen pretty much every episode. The current version of Morty’s family is not even the one we started with. We don’t know which Beth is the real Beth (who by the way is NOT real-real Beth), Morty’s not the original Morty, Rick isn’t Rick Prime, so in the words of the show, “Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, we’re all gonna die, come watch some TV.”