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For those who don’t know, Rick and Morty has been one of the most significant adult cartoon shows for the past ten years. The show has accumulated thousands of fans throughout these ten years and has won numerous awards.
With six seasons of Rick and Morty already released, many fans were skeptical of how this seventh season would go due to the recent changes to the show’s production.
In January, Adult Swim cut ties with Justin Roiland (actor, animator, writer, producer, and director on Rick and Morty) due to him being charged with domestic violence.
Aside from Adult Swim, Justin Roiland has also worked on Solar Opposites, a Hulu original show. The show also decided to end its association with Justin Roiland.
For those who don’t know, Justin Roiland was a co-creator of Rick and Morty, and he voiced both main characters, Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith. Fans were rightfully nervous for the new season of Rick and Morty without Roiland.
To add fuel to the fire, Roiland has also been replaced for his role as Korvo in Solar Opposites, another one of his shows. He was replaced by Dan Stevens, who has a British accent – which also gave Korvo a new British accent (written in as a plot point).
But in what seemed like no time at all, the trailer for the seventh season of Rick and Morty was released in September, and fans finally got the chance to hear Rick and Morty’s new voices.
Harry Belden, the new voice of Morty, and Ian Cardoni, the new voice of Rick, are both young and fairly new in the acting world.
The Vanity Fair recounts an interview with Rick and Morty creators, stating their hope for the future with the new actors: “By casting two actors who are relatively early in their careers, Marder said Cardoni and Belden have ‘brought this show 30 more years,’ adding, ‘We just got these eager, young guys who are so excited to attack every episode.’”
Fans had mixed reactions to the new voices. Although the voices were spot on and sounded just like Roiland’s, long-time fans of the show could still pick up on the slight difference.
Three episodes of Rick and Morty have aired to date, and fans have already shared their opinions on the new season – and many are disappointed.
Fans posted their opinions about season seven of Rick and Morty on different social media platforms, with some voicing how this season doesn’t feel the same as past ones. It was a big upset for long-term fans who have been watching for years and maintain a love for the characters and story.
Many fans have pointed out how the writing for this season is lacking and needs to include many improvements.
For one, the first three episodes are all about Rick and don’t really feature Morty. Fans of Morty are disappointed that their favorite character now has minimal screen time. Even the President, a side character, has had more screen time than Morty in the three episodes.
Other than that, most other complaints are about the writing itself. Many fans are complaining about the jokes, saying they feel forced and the humor isn’t the same as previous seasons.
Fans have also said that Roiland’s absence this season is pretty noticeable. Roiland has an irreplaceable knack for making jokes, primarily improvised ones, which is one of the significant things lacking this season.
Although most fans seem to have already lost interest in this season and don’t like it overall, there have been fans enjoying the new season. Some say episode one was terrible, and episode two was good, but other fans will say they were all bad, and some fans actually are enjoying the season so far and are just happy that the show didn’t get canceled when Roiland was removed from it.
However, we are only three episodes into the new season, and we still have seven more episodes to see if anything changes or if it gets better. Only time will tell if Rick and Morty really did end with Justin Roiland or if the show can still thrive without him.