Loki Writer Michael Waldron Explains Why He Turned Down Rick and Morty Job

Loki head writer Michael Waldron has already had tremendous upward momentum in Hollywood. In [...]

Loki head writer Michael Waldron has already had tremendous upward momentum in Hollywood. In addition to working on the new TV series from Marvel he's co-written the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and a new Star Wars movie from Marvel's Kevin Feige). Prior to all of this though, Waldron was a writer and producer on the team behind Rick & Morty and before landing the part of leading the new Disney+ series was in line to be the showrunner for Emmy winning animated series. Speaking in an interview with Bleeding Cool, Waldron was asked about being offered that role at the same time he landed Loki, saying:

"We had had conversions about that, yes. Mike McMahan was leaving. He created Solar Opposites and Star Trek Lower Decks… So, yeah, (Dan) Harmon and I had a conversation about me taking over. I'd just come up on the show and everything. That would have been fun in another world. That would have been a blast. But the Loki thing was really, you know, once that came on the radar Dan was very supportive and encouraged me to go after it, once he realized it was live-action. At one point he was like 'Are you really passionate about the character of Loki? (Rick and Morty) is a pretty successful cartoon.' I was like 'This is a live-action,' he was like 'Oh yeah, go!'"

When asked about the same story by Vanity Fair, the Rick & Morty co-creator revealed his side of the tale, adding:

"We're like, 'Okay. He's a little green, but he's moving so quickly and he learns so fast and he's such a hard worker. We're crazy for doing it. Let's take a chance on this kid,'" Harmon revealed. "He's like, 'Guys, I'm so flattered by this. I have a meeting at Marvel this afternoon. I think I might be running a show for them.' That's the story of how we loved, semi-supported, semi-discouraged, and definitely lost Michael Waldron."

Though he wasn't involved in the fifth season having moved over to the god of mischief's live-action show, Waldron was asked what he thought might be different about this new batch of episodes if he had been the showrunner for Rick & Morty. His repsonse?

"Probably not entirely different....It probably just wouldn't have been on time if I had done the job."

Rick and Morty returns this Sunday, June 20th at 11:00 P.M. ET. Loki debuts new episodes on Disney+ every Wednesday.

0comments