Rick And Morty charts its post-Roiland return

Nearly six months after disgraced Rick And Morty creator Justin Roiland’s false imprisonment and domestic battery charges were dismissed amid a deluge of horror stories of interacting with the man, Roiland’s brainchild is set to make its return without him. Rick And Morty will return on October 15 at 11 P.M. on Adult Swim for its seventh season. New episodes are available from digital retailers the day after its Adult Swim premiere. The season will be made available to stream next year, which, in a surprising move considering how much Warner Bros. Discovery wants us to use its rebranded streaming service, indicates the new season will not be made available on Max for another few months.

The network boasts that Rick And Morty has enjoyed its spot at the top of the ratings for comedy on cable for the last four seasons, earning two Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program. Yet that was all in flux during the investigation into the show’s beleaguered creator and star. After the charges against Roiland were made public in January, Adult Swim cut ties with Roiland publicly and announced his roles would be recast. However, who will voice the characters is still unclear.

Last month at Comic-Con, executive producer Steve Levy told the crowd of fans that the show is “closing in on the end of our process of the recast” and that it’s going to be “great,” adding that he’s “thoroughly impressed with everything that’s going on.” Though a name was not given, Levy assured the audience that “the show is as good as it’s ever been” and that there would be “no change” to the characters. “It’s soundalikes,” Levy said. “The characters are the same characters.”

We don’t want to read too much into that, but considering the show premieres in two months, it seems like they’re cutting it close. But these things are tricky, and in between Roiland’s dismissal and the announcement, two historic strikes began—though Levy did tell the French magazine Premiere that season seven was unaffected by the strike and “season 8 is already fully written.”

Meanwhile, Roiland’s other voice-over job on Hulu’s Solar Opposites has already been recast with actor Dan Stevens.