Rick and Morty was created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, though the latter was fired from the series earlier this year after alleged sexual misconduct.
After briefly facing police charges, the floodgates opened and Roiland's reputation was left in tatters. We don't anticipate him ever bouncing back from what's been said about him, particularly after recent claims he used his fame to proposition teenage girls (some of whom were allegedly as young as 16).
Now, soundalikes will play Rick and Morty's title characters and Harmon has finally opened up about the end of his and Roiland's friendship in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
It sounds like things started falling apart when Harmon decided to bring in a number of writers from Community to give the hit animated series some structure. Roiland felt pushed out and seemed to grow resentful of his partner becoming the creative driving force behind the Adult Swim series.
Roiland's behaviour behind the scenes was every bit as chaotic as we've heard as the trade spoke with former Adult Swim boss Mike Lazzo who says, "Dan would be in the writers room and Justin would be running radio control cars around the studio."
After coming together to agree on the landmark deal for an additional 70 episodes of Rick and Morty, things started looking up between the two but it quickly devolved. In fact, the last time they spoke was by text in 2019.
"He said things that he’d never said before about being unhappy, and I remember saying to him the last time we spoke in person, like, 'I am worried about you, and I don’t know what to do about that except to give you all the string and also just say I’m scared that you’re not going to come back.' But then this conversation became unprecedentedly confrontational."
When those accusations came out earlier this year, Harmon says he initially chose not to comment and took a backseat in recasting Rick and Morty with who the trade calls "two young, unknown voice actors."
"It’s all just sad because the goal is for it to be indistinguishable," he says. "At the same time, it would be absurd to suddenly decide that the entire foundation of your creative project was, oh, coincidentally, unimportant."
Despite acknowledging the importance of Roiland's contributions to the animated series, Harmon feels he can no longer stay quiet after those heinous accusations.
"The easiest thing for me to say about Justin has been nothing. Easy because he isolated so well and easy because I’m nobody’s first choice as a judge of anything or anyone. This is where I’d love to change the subject to myself, to what a piece of crap I’ve been my whole public life. I would feel so safe and comfortable making this about me, but that trick is worthless here and dangerous to others."
"It’s other people’s safety and comfort that got damaged while I obsessed over a cartoon’s quality. Trust has now been violated between countless people and a show designed to please them. I’m frustrated, ashamed and heartbroken that a lot of hard work, joy and passion can be leveraged to exploit and harm strangers."
Harmon has now appointed a showrunner in Scott Marder and hopes Rick and Morty will have the same longevity as The Simpsons. Prior to the WGA strike, he'd even had "serious" conversations with Warner Bros. executives about a movie that would have a "super episode" conceit similar to the South Park feature.
With the strike over, we're hoping work on the Rick and Morty movie will now resume so make sure to keep checking back here for updates.