From the creative minds of Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, Rick and Morty’s popularity exploded during the almost two-year hiatus between Season 2 and 3. These days, the show is a bonafide phenomenon that can force even McDonald’s to resurrect its extinct Szechuan Sauce. So while everyone waits for news about Season 4, intrigue only further peaks.
On that note, here’s everything we know about the future of Rick and Morty.
Rick and Morty Season 3 Ending
The Rick and Morty Season 3 finale ended things in a place that felt strangely normal, especially when compared to the Season 2 cliffhanger that left Rick imprisoned and Earth overrun by the Galactic Federation. “The Rickchurian Mortydate” pitted Rick against the President of the United States and made us wonder whether or not Beth was actually a clone of herself — but both of these plot threads just sort of ended.
The final shot had the whole Smith household back at home by the dinner table and everyone was laughing at Rick. So that’s pretty mundane, leaving it open for Season 4 to go in all sorts of different directions. Evil Morty, however, is still out there and in control of the Citadel with an army of Ricks and Mortys at his disposal.
What Is the Rick and Morty Season 4 Release Date?
Adult Swim has not formally announced a Season 4 release date, but there’s virtually no chance that it’ll be in 2018. After all, in the Season 3 post-credits (featured above), Mr. Poopybutthole returned to the show to say Season 4 wouldn’t be out for “a really long time.”
Rick and Morty was only officially renewed for a fourth season in May 2018, so even if the co-creators and writers had ideas for the new season ready to go, they probably weren’t working on it at all until that point.
Rick and Morty writer Ryan Ridley estimated in January 2018 that Season 4 wouldn’t premiere until late 2019, and that’s really the only straightforward estimation anyone has made.
But How Far Is Rick and Morty Season 4 Production?
Analyzing how far along Rick and Morty is in its production does offer one optimistic outlook:
In early September 2018, Dan Harmon announced via Instagram that the Rick and Morty art team was already drawing the new season just days after a different post indicated that voice recording had started. For comparison, in February 2017 Harmon said “they’re drawing it” to a crowd of frustrated fans during a recording of his podcast Harmontown. The Season 3 premiere then aired less than two months later on April 1, 2017.
Take this assumption with a grain of salt, but if the Season 4 timetable matches up, then it’s possible that we could see the beginning of Season 4 air before the end of 2018. And there’s further evidence to support that a new episode could air around Christmas.
While talking about when Season 4 might come out in the Season 3 post-credits scene, Mr. Poopybutthole did say, “I might even have a big, white Santa Claus beard!” Because Mr. Poopybutthole’s post-Season 2 teaserturned out to be almost 100 percent accurate in predicting the Season 3 premiere, we can reasonably assume this new one might also be accurate.
Maybe Season 4 will kick off with a Rick and Morty Christmas Special that shows Mr. Poopybutthole dressed up like Santa Claus? And then the show will continue almost four months later like it did for Season 3?
Is There a Trailer for Rick and Morty Season 4?
So far, there aren’t any trailers for Season 4 just yet.
Other than random Adult Swim promos, like one done in the style of X-Men: The Animated Series, the closest thing we’ve gotten to new Rick and Morty happened when the two presented an award at the 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2018.
The surprise airing of the Season 3 premiere on April 1 was unprecedented, and there wasn’t a legitimate Season 3 trailer until late June 2017 announcing the rest of the season would begin airing at the end of July.
Might we see a more traditional schedule with a trailer before the Season 4 premiere? There’s really no way to know, but we do know that Rick and Morty and Adult Swim like to keep fans guessing.
How Many Episodes Is Rick and Morty Season 4?
There’s no confirmation just yet, but Dan Harmon told Entertainment Weekly in September that their creative team wanted Season 4 to run 14 episodes rather than the usual 10 or 11.
That was also once the ambition for Season 3, but some kind of creative conflict between Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland seemingly caused long production delays and eventually shortened the season to only 10 episodes.
So we’ll believe 14 episodes when we see it made official. Otherwise, we can all probably expect 10 or 11 episodes for Season 4.
Who Is in the Rick and Morty Season 4 Cast?
The entire core voice cast is slated to return in Season 4. Co-creator Justin Roiland voices both Morty and Rick himself. Chris Parnell, Sarah Chalke, and Spencer Grammer should also return as Jerry, Beth, and Summer Smith as well. Beyond that, it’s unclear what characters could return or what higher-profile guest stars might lend their talents. Morty’s longtime crush, Jessica (Kari Wahlgren), is all but certain to return for at least a few episodes.
Each season usually offers a handful of recognizable guest stars. Keith David’s President of the United States has appeared in Seasons 2 and 3, so it’s reasonable to assume he might appear in Season 4 as well. Supernova, a purple cosmic being with superpowers voiced by Gillian Jacobs, is the only surviving member of the Vindicators. Given the way she parted ways with Morty and Rick in Season 3, she might return to the show as a villain at some point. Justin Roiland has also said he’d love to bring the intelligent white dog Snuffles/Snowball back on the show, which would probably require voice actor Rob Paulsen.
Dan Harmon even admitted in May 2018 that he desperately wanted Ice-T to voice a character on the show, so that could happen in time for Season 4.
Actor Christopher Lloyd, who played Dr. Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future movies, publicly said in July 2018 that he’d be totally down to lend his voice to the show. Considering Rick and Morty started off as a Back to the Future parody, that would make for one really exciting guest star.
When Does Rick and Morty Air Each Week?
Other than the premiere, all of Rick and Morty Season 3 aired on Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. Eastern with episodes being made available afterward on Adult Swim’s website.
Technically, any time slot within Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programming is fair game, and that occurs nightly between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. So it’s possible that Rick and Morty Season 4 might get a more favorable time slot.
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