Rick and Morty Exec Breaks Silence on Justin Roiland Exit

Rick and Morty will be moving forward with Season 7 on Adult Swim following series co-creator and star Justin Roiland’s firing, and one of the executives behind the series has broken their silence on the endeavor. Last year Adult Swim had announced that they were ending their association with Rick and Morty series co-creator (and voice actor behind the voices of the titular duo), and were moving forward on their work with Rick and Morty Season 7 with the rest of the team. With Rick and Morty Season 7 coming soon, those behind the scenes have started to open up about their reactions to the matter. 

Rick and Morty co-executive producer Steve Levy and Cartoon Network, Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen took part in the Annecy International Animation Film Festival for Rick and Morty and offered some updates on the now in the works Season 7. Speaking with Premiere ahead of their special panel at the festival, Levy and Ouweleen were asked about their thoughts on Roiland’s exit from the series (as translated from French, and spotted by @Swimpedia on Twitter) and opened up about how tough it was for them to react to the fallout. 

Rick and Morty’s Team React to Justin Roiland’s Exit

“The pill was hard to swallow,” Levy began on discussing Roiland’s exit. “We were shocked and disturbed by what happened. But we stuck together and we put all our energy into the series. We decided to stay positive, and in the end we produced the best drawings, scripts and animations of the entire series.” Levy then elaborated by emphasizing that Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has been on “everything” as a result, “And Dan Harmon [the co-creator of Rick and Morty] has always been in the trenches with us, every step of the way. He always has an eye on everything, and sometimes that means he asks us to rewrite entire scripts, but for the good of the series. He never walked away after Justin left.”

Ouweleen then concurred with the toughness of the situation, but noted how Rick and Morty Season 7 will be a pivotal one, “There’s no guide on how to react to this stuff. And it’s not normal to experience that. Of course it’s hard, of course it hurts. But when a whole team works on a series, the series actually becomes more important than one person. Season 7 will be pivotal, we know it, but I think we’ve never done better so far.”

Rick and Morty Season 7 is currently slated for a potential release this Fall, and you can currently find the first six seasons now streaming with Max and Hulu. 

via Premiere