Rick and Morty Auditioned Thousands to Replace Justin Roiland

Rick and Morty is back, baby. After a long wait, the Adult Swim original returned to the air with season seven. With a slew of new episodes on the way, all eyes are on Rick Sanchez’s family ahead of their adventures. Rick and Morty also went to air this season with new voice actors in tow, and the show’s executives admit they listened to thousands during the casting process.

The commentary comes from Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder as the pair spoke with The Hollywood Reporter as of late. It was there the pair discussed the hard process of finding new talent to voice Rick Sanchez and his grandson. After all, the pair were voiced by Justin Roiland who was removed from Rick and Morty earlier this year. So when asked about casting, Marder said the process was extensive.

“We heard thousands. It went on for six months. It was really wide. It almost went so wide that we debated doing a global hotline though we knew it would wind up being a prank line,” Marder explained.

“We felt like we needed to go that far and wide. It was harder than we thought. I thought it’d have been easier. Rick was a lot harder than I expected; everyone sounded like Macho Man Randy Savage or like a cousin of his. No one sounded exactly like Rick. It was tricky. People had it in splashes but once you bring them back in, they couldn’t do it conversationally, which is what we needed. It was exhaustive.”

Adding in, series co-creator Harmon talked about the complexities of finding a soundalike for Roiland’s roles. “It’s one thing to match an impression – can you do George W. Bush as well as Dana Carvey but can you then do it if you’re not saying, ‘Not gonna do it.’ It was trying to strike this crazy balance; this character has to be angry, sad, despondent and all those things,” he explained.

Of course, Roiland’s volatile exit from Rick and Morty left many unsure of where the series would take his roles. The show’s season seven premiere went off without a hitch as Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden brought Rick and Morty to life. Their performances were met with high praise from even the most wary of fans, so now we will have to see how season seven fares moving forward.