Rick and Morty: Who Is the Rick Prime Explained

Rick and Morty Season 6 has introduced a pivotal new (but long-awaited) character: Rick Prime. In a show like Rick and Morty, where the entire multiverse is the playground, keeping track of characters and their many variants (not to mention dimensions in which the show is set) takes guidance. In this case, there's already understandable confusion, as the name "Rick Prime" has already appeared in the series before (more on that later). Based on the characterization we saw in the Season 6 premiere, fans are also understandably running with nicknames like "Evil Rick" – which, again, is a name that previously appeared in the series. 

Who Is The Prime Rick?

Rick Prime is a version of Rick who comes from the Cronenberged dimension; he is especially sociopathic and was the one responsible for killing Rick C-137's wife Diane and daughter Beth in the C-137 reality.

From what we've seen, Rick Prime was a Rick who developed interdimensional travel via the Portal Gun, and chose to abandon his family in favor of exploring the multiverse. Rick Prime apparently wanted to shared his universe-hopping adventures with other versions of himself and tried to seduce Rick C-137 with the idea of the Portal Gun. However, Rick C-137 loved his family and refused to go along. Rick Prime left a bomb in C-137's garage out of spite but ended up killing Diane and Beth instead. 

After the falling out between Rick Prime and Rick C-137, the former disappeared into the multiverse, while Rick C-137 dedicated his remaining days to hunting down his family's killer. In the Rick and Morty Season 6 premiere, Rick C-137 accidentally sends all portal travelers back to their home dimensions – which draws Rick Prime home to the Cronenberged Universe. Now RIck Prime is looking for who's responsible and has already killed his original Jerry. 

Who Is Evil Rick? 

"Evil Rick" was the name of a Rick Sanchez variant that was captured by Evil Morty and turned into his personal puppet. In the Season 1 Episode, "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" The Evil Rick and Morty hunted down and killed multiple Rick variants, abducting their Mortys. The main (Prime?) Morty of the series led a revolution of Mortys that overpowered Evil Rick and killed him, revealing his hacked brain to the Council of Ricks, even though Evil Morty was never caught as the true mastermind. 

Who Is The Other Rick Prime?

After "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" we returned to the Citadel of Ricks in the Season 3 premiere, "The Rickshank Rickdemption" which is where we first heard the name "Rick Prime". That Rick was a member of the Council of Ricks; however, when C-137 body-snatched his way into infiltrating the Citadel to rescue Morty and Summer, the council member "Rick Prime" was one of the Ricks that C-137 killed. 

...Basically, the makers of Rick and Morty realized they used the name on a bit character and are simply paving over it. 

Who Is Weird Rick? 

"Weird Rick" was the original name the series gave to the main antagonist Rick Prime. In "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" there was a scene that showed where various Ricks fall on a spectrum of good-to-evil; Prime Rick first appeared as a picture on that spectrum and was said to be "Weird". Now we know why: he's sociopath.