Rick and Morty Execs Didn’t Want Big Stars to Replace Justin Roiland

Rick and Morty Season 7 has revealed its new voice actors, who are replacing series co-creator Justin Roiland. However, when the names Ian Cordoni (the new Rick) and Harry Belden (the new Morty) finally got revealed, a lot of fans were left scratching their heads, as they were not exactly well-known actors. And, apparently, that was the exact intention of the showrunners. 

In a new interview with THR, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon and producer Scott Marder revealed why they never wanted to go with a big-name actor (or actors)to voice the new Rick and Morty: 

“I hate to call him out but Elijah Wood really abused having my personal number. What a vulture this guy was! He’s always wanted to be Morty. Elijah, please regain your professionalism!” Harmon joked, before explaining that “No, we didn’t have celebrities banging down door that I know of. Maybe in the very nascent stages of crisis mode, surely there was a half-hearted exploration of the possibility of what Solar Opposites did. But obviously that would minimize the chances of show’s survival.”

As Harmon notes, Roiland’s other popular animated series, Hulu’s Solar Opposites, chose a somewhat big-name actor as a replacement: Dan Stevens, best known for the Marvel TV series Legion, and Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast remake. Harmon has done some additional explanation of why Rick and Morty felt two relatively unknown actors mimicking Roiland was the best formula – and producer Scott Marder was totally on board with that decision: 

“We never sincerely went down that road [of choosing a famous actor]” Marder said. He did it admit that the idea “was explored right at the heart of things at the very beginning,” but that they quickly threw it out. 

According to both Harmon and Marder, Rick and Morty simply isn’t a show that can sustain itself through a massive voice change: 

“I always try to look at it from a fan’s perspective: Imagine Homer Simpson sounding different,” Marder explained. “I would have been instantly out. As much as I love this show, I felt like it needed to be exactly the same.”

It remains to be seen if Harmon and Marder are correct about Rick and Morty and their voice continuity. Without a doubt, Roiland made the two odd-pair characters (and conuntless other supporting characters) into memorable (if not iconic) animated characters. That said, when news of Roiland’s exit first broke, a lot of fans pointed out that Rick and Morty’s entire theme of multiverse stories made it the rare series where a sudden shift in main character voices could organically (and hilariously) be explained away. Solar Opposites seems to have cleared the hurdle of getting fans to accept Dan Stevens’ totally different take on lead character Corvo – so far, it seems Rick and Morty’s new voice actors are going to be constantly getting compared to Roiland. We’ll see how it goes…

Rick and Morty Season 7 is airing on Adult Swim on Sunday nights.