Rick and Morty's Co-Creators Have Been Estranged for Years, Says New Report
The fallout from the controversy surrounding animation actor Justin Roiland continues, and a new report that broke had a lot of the seedier details surrounding the many alleged issues Roiland caused both in and out of the workplace, which ultimately resulted in him being fired from the major entertainment ventures he was involved with, including Rick and Morty, the Hulu series Solar Opposites, and his gaming company, Squanch Games.
The newest report breaks down Roiland's fall from grace, retracing his behavior through the entire run of Rick & Morty. One interesting subplot of that story was no doubt the dissilution of the relationship betweeen Roiland and Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon. If what the article alleges is true, then it seems as though Roiland and Harmon were simply smiling nice for the cameras while doing the PR for most of Rick and Morty's seasons; behind the scenes, however, it seems as though the pair's relationship soured early on during the show's run, and never recovered.
Here are some of the choice about Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon's relationship, as detailed by THR:
Harmon and Roiland intitially started off well, with Harmon picking out Roiland as one of the most "subversive" talents involved with Harmon's Channel 101 monthly short film festival. After being fired from Community by NBC, Harmond was the one who sought Roiland out, based on the latter's wild an zany approach. One of those "zany" ideas roiland had was for twisted take on Back to the Future with a drunk Doc Brown and neurotic Marty Mcfly, and the Doc Brown character would be constantly trying to have his way with the kid.
The article paints the picture that Harmon was the more mature influence to Roiland's wild juvenile humor, striking the balance that is Rick and Morty's humor. The first season seemed to be a joyous experience of creation, but when the show started being sucecessful, Roiland and Harmon's creative harmony quickly fractured:
Harmon, who has never been shy about his sky-high standards, was determined to make season two even better... During season two, Roiland began pulling away, increasingly uninterested in being in a room that had given him great joy only a season earlier... At some point during the third season of Rick and Morty, multiple sources say Roiland simply stopped showing up — and when he did turn up in the Burbank offices, he'd typically avoid the writers room... In the meantime, the relationship between Harmon and Roiland had grown so acrimonious that the show brought in a mediator to try to salvage what was once an inspired partnership.
Mediation ultimately failed, and it's noted that in the time since, Roiland and Harmon have never reconciled and when it comes to Roiland, "he hasn't been on speaking terms with his Rick and Morty co-creator, Dan Harmon, for multiple seasons."
The Story of Rick and Birdperson hits so different now...
- Adult Swim)It may be needed PR at this point, but a lot of Rick and Morty fans are certainly hoping its somewhat true. The question of whether or not Rick and Morty can survive without Roiland is the biggest one still looming since all this broke...
Rick and Morty Season 7 is in production.
