Rick and Morty Co-Creator on Why The New Season is Perfect for Rick's Origin Story

By Nick Valdez

Rick and Morty Season 6 has begun processing everything that happened with Rick's origin story for the first real-time in the series, and one of the creators behind it all has opened up on why now was the time to further flesh it out! After being teased by Rick's potential origin in the third season of the series, the final episode of the fifth season finally revealed how Rick C-137 became the Rick we saw in the show. With the first episode of the sixth season further exploring this origin, all sorts of new emotions and potential character choices are on the table for the first real-time.  

It's such a late in the game development that fans have been wondering why we're now starting to see more of Rick's past. As explained by Rick and Morty series co-creator Dan Harmon, this is actually the result of some dark times behind the scenes in the fifth season due to the loss of producer J. Michael Mendel, and the sixth season is the team finally getting to a place of stability where they can truly explore the main canon and serialization and all of the heaviness that comes with it. 

rick-and-morty-season-6-rick-origin-story-dan-harmon-explained.jpg
(Photo: Adult Swim)

Speaking with Variety about why now is the time to move ahead with exploring Rick's origin story, Harmon explained, "From a behind-the-scenes perspective, Season 5 was very much a dark point for our show. We lost our father figure, Mike Mendel, who was the master over at The Simpsons, and then he was the reason why Rick and Morty, in spite of its kind of punk rock-ness, was still able to compete in an adult business...On screen then, there was this sort of willful attempt to be ordinary, the way you might grieve by going shopping, because you're just like, I'm just gonna act normal. And then your behavior can be so frenetic and compulsive that people are like, what is wrong with that person?"

It was a tentative aversion to avoid building on the franchise until enough time had passed. "That's the way I look at Season 5," Harmon continued. "And we did amazing work, but as far as the embrace of Rick and Morty as this massive franchise with a natural canon and serialization to it, that spoke of drama to me on an emotional level, and in the midst of all this tumult, I think there was an unconscious desire to avoid that." But there was more of a sense of solid ground for the team in Season 6. 

"So the long answer to your question is then, going into Season 6, when there was a little bit more stability, a little feeling of getting to start now, again, in a post-Mendel world, I think the first thing that came up was, are we going to tell an overarching story here about Rick's one-armed man and his 'Fugitive' kind of thing?" Harmon continued. "That's why it became time to do that. Also, you do a huge cliffhanger at the end of Season 5, that's fandom faith bought on credit and you've got to pay that bill. So that means you're going deep."

How do you feel about Season 6 tackling Rick's origins head on and the emotional response as a result? What do you think it means for future episodes? Let us know all of your thoughts about it in the comments! You can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!

via Variety

Trending Now: