It’s been a few painful months since the season 3 finale of Adult Swim’s hit TV cartoon comedy Rick and Morty premiered in October, but finally, there’s great news.
This past Thursday Adult Swim signed on for 70 more episodic adventures of Rick and Morty which is more than double the number of episodes that were produced in its first three seasons of 31 episodes.
To celebrate, the showrunners of the show Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland who also voices Rick and Morty, posted on their Instagram account a video of them taking a shower together before they head back to work. On Harmon’s account, the video is captioned, “nothing this big has ever been seen in my shower.”
The video is hilarious which is not surprising, considering these are the minds behind, Pickle Rick, a character and episode from last season that inspired several memes and fandom love before the episode itself even premiered. Rick and Morty is also responsible for McDonald’s rereleasing their Szechuan sauce twice.
Roiland also posted a drawing of the characters, reacting to the renewal. Rick is ready for these multi-dimensional and multi-planetary adventures but Morty is less enthused.
This news is very comforting for fans of the hit program because there was nearly a two year hiatus before its latest season and much discussion on why Adult Swim hadn’t renewed the series for months after the season 3 finale. Well, this deal answers that question.
Seasons for Rick and Morty tend to be ten episodes long, so potentially this means there will at least be seven more seasons of Rick and Morty. At this rate, the show will continue well into the next decade and if each of the seasons take as long as it did to produce season three, then well Rick and Morty may still be airing new content into the 2030s.
For fans this is great news, but animated shows do tend to last for a considerably large number of episodes. The Simpsons has had 637 episodes in 29 years, while Family Guy will have 309 episodes by the end of its sixteenth season and South Park has had 21 seasons, summing up a total of 287 episodes so far. These three cartoon shows seem like they will never end and it will be interesting to see if Rick and Morty catches up to these numbers. It definitely has what it takes.
The show’s most reason season finale achieved the highest ratings in Adult Swim’s history and for comedies, Rick and Morty had the highest ratings among millennials in 2017. With adult groups 18-24 and 18-34, it surpassed Saturday Night Live, Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory. The show has become a mainstay of pop culture.
“Rick and Morty is truly what a modern day hit looks like across multiple screens and multiple touchpoints,” said Christina Miller, President of Adult Swim as well as Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
Adult Swim will celebrate this renewal with a nationwide tour of the Rickmobile, beginning in Atlanta on May 17 and including a stop at San Diego Comic Con in July.
The wait for more Rick and Morty continues but at least in this universe, its future is looking Ricktastic.
