Rick and Morty could go on forever, creators say
Adult SwimRick and Morty won’t be ending schwiftly – according to the creators, it could last forever.
Rick and Morty first aired in 2013. Over the next few years, the Adult Swim cartoon found a loyal, impassioned audience, with millions gleefully embarking on the pair’s wild intergalactic adventures week after week.
The sixth season is due to arrive in September, marking the beginning of Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon’s new long-term deal with the network, with at least 70 more episodes on the way.
The question is: when will Rick and Morty end? Are we heading towards the show’s endgame, or is it on the ad infinitum trajectory of The Simpsons? For the creators, it seems to be the latter.
Rick and Morty creators say the show could last “forever”
Roiland and Harmon are around halfway through their 70-episode batch, but they have no intention of stopping anytime soon.
In an interview with The Wrap ahead of Season 6, Roiland said: “I think the show could run forever. The show could run as long as we want it to.”
Harmon continued: “As far as the longevity of the show, to me, it just feels infinite. That’s kind of the easy part.
“And I think that might be the cause of some frustration on the fans’ part, because my original commitment to just, I think a good TV show is one that lasts 1000 episodes.
“You don’t design a paper airplane to land at a certain spot a certain distance for you. A good paper airplane is the one that stays in the air forever, and that’s impossible but you fold it in a way that that’s the goal.”
Harmon said they’ve always avoided the “soap opera-ness that there’s an inevitable conclusion coming… you know, Mulder is gonna find his sister and he won’t have a reason to do X-Files anymore.”
“We don’t really have that. We’ve certainly got elements that can only happen once as far as revelations about Rick and stuff like that, but I do believe that the adventures can go on for theoretically 1000 episodes,” he added.
There’ll be a new season of Rick and Morty “every year”
While Season 5 was delayed as a result of global restrictions, Rick and Morty is on track to release a new season every year.
“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever said about the show and it still feels unreal to say it, but we’ll be doing a season a year now,” Harmon said.
“I still don’t understand how that’s possible. But that’s why it never happened on my watch. [Showrunner] Scott [Marder] is able to keep us on a schedule that mostly involves being so ahead of schedule that we can actually release things in a timely manner.”
Rick and Morty Season 6 will premiere on September 4.