Rick and Morty Creators Reveal They Struggled to Find Home for the Show
With over fifty episodes under its belt already, and whispers of its future already making the rounds, it seems like Rick and Morty is here to stay for the long haul. It seems impossible to now ponder a world without the series, but the runaway success of the Adult Swim series, which has spawned spinoffs, video games, and countless other merch, almost couldn't find a home. Speaking in a new interview with Screen Rant, series creator Justin Roiland revealed that when they were developing the series and then pitching it that it took quite a while for anyone in Hollywood to even give it a fair shake.
"I can tell you we were having a hard time getting a sci-fi concept through the gate," the Emmy-winning writer, producer, and star revealed. "This was around the time that Futurama was cancelled. Sci-fi was not profitable; it was not doing as well. Executives saw sci-fi and they were like, 'Eh-eh, nope, that's a not-it's a dirty word.' So that, for sure, was the climate at the time. And then we were able to get one past the goalie. Obviously, it was a very smart goalie who knew what they were doing and let us make the show we wanted to make, and here we are."
We're just a few weeks out now from the return of Rick and Morty, which is set to premiere its sixth season on September 4. This next batch of episodes will bring the series to just under halfway through its gargantuan episode order from Adult Swim, which picked up the show for seven seasons/seventy episodes in the time just after season three. With another forty episodes set to arrive after this year, one might think the end is in sight, but not according to Roiland.
"I very much expect the show to go beyond that [70-episode] order," he confirmed to the outlet. "I don't think that's jinxing it, I mean, it just seems like, 'Okay, we've got a certain amount of momentum here.' The 70-episode order, to me, was like, "Well, how much can we commit to?" It was a two-way street between us and the network saying we're going to take this very seriously, right? We're not going to go develop a bunch of stuff unless we hire like a Scott Marder to run the shop. But in any case, it's a commitment to professionalism and stuff, and it was an important one. It's like, "Oh, we got tenure, we're told that we have a job tomorrow no matter what we do." The result of that a couple of steps later is now Scott has got the show on such a schedule that, for the first time in the show's life, we're looking at doing a season every year. It worked great, getting that order was exactly what we needed to grow up."
What are you hoping to see in Rick and Morty season six? Sound off in the comments below and let us know.