Mild spoilers below for anyone who didn’t watch Rick and Morty Season 7’s premiere, so be warned!
As much as Rick and Morty season premieres are always as highly anticipated as can be for an Adult Swim drop, the fervor hit a different pitch ahead of Season 7, with the installment “How Poopy Got His Poop Back” being the first to air without its co-creator and former star Justin Roiland, who was fired in January over previous charges of domestic violence and a string of sexual misconduct accusations from various females. Dan Harmon and current showrunner Scott Marder had to then make some difficult decisions about the animated comedy’s future, which led to the replacement casting of not just two new leads — Ian Cardoni as Rick and Harry Belden as Morty — but also another new voice actor as the fan-favorite Mr. Poopybutthole.
In an interview with THR, the creative pair’s first to fully address the behind-the-scenes changes, Harmon and Marder talked out the ups and downs of having to replace such a core part of a hit series at a point when the writers are already deep into breaking stories for Season 9. When asked whether the original plan was to fill out the Roiland-voiced characters with separate actors for each, the showrunner confirmed that was indeed the goal, with the idea of not wanting to run new cast members ragged. In his words:
I did. There were different schools of thought. For sheer quality of life, it’d be easier for the amount of work required for both characters. We watched it over the years wear down on Roiland’s voice. It felt unfair to do that to someone.
A completely understandable decision to make for someone in a position of authority. Roiland was as prolific a voice actor as could be within the world of Rick and Morty, not to mention his video games and other series, and is known for going off on improvised tangents, not always to the pleasure of the writers whose scripts reportedly weren’t being adhered to. In any case, those familiar with how much time Roiland spent on the mic were the most suited to figure out how best to delegate the roles and duties. In the end, having two different talents in the parts made the most sense considering what would be expected from them.
For the most part, Dan Harmon backed away from the recasting process, as he’d previously shared it was difficult as someone whose friendship with Roiland soured due to the show itself, with the series also reportedly used by the fired star as a way to personally connect with younger fans. As far as the general replacement ideas went, the Community creator spoke to the notion that publicly playing up the casting reveals would have been a disservice to fans being able to suspend disbelief concerning behind-the-curtain issues. As he put it:
In retrospect, it’s also smart because we want the fan experience to continue with as little disruption as possible. In a weird way, catering to the idea that there’s been a replacement of a single human being — an auteur — is going to play into the disruption factor. We really want people to keep believing these characters are real.
It’s not too hard to imagine that the Rick and Morty team might have wondered how hard it would be to make it all the way to the Season 7 premiere without ever letting fans hear what Cardoni and Belden sounded like as the grandfather and grandson. In the end, Adult Swim did release a wacky trailer with the new voices, which fans obviously had opinions on from the very first millisecond of footage. Merder & Co. did achieve the goal of not releasing the new actors’ names ahead of the premiere, as a way of further dampening the kayfabe, as it were.
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Though the booze-fueled chicanery throughout the seventh season premiere was bolstered by a surprise guest-starring role from Hugh Jackman (awkward wedding photo reference and all), it sounds like there wasn’t ever a real chance of Rick and Morty following along in Solar Opposites’ footsteps by casting a well-known actor or two. (Dan Stevens replaced Roiland as the Hulu series’ Korvo.) After Dan Harmon joked about Elijah Wood rabidly attempting to woo his way into the Morty role, he and Marder agreed that landing a household name wasn’t nearly as important as finding actors who could bridge the gap while drawing as little audible attention to the switch-up as possible. According to the showrunner:
We never sincerely went down that road. It was explored right at the heart of things at the very beginning. I always try to look at it from a fan’s perspective: Imagine Homer Simpson sounding different. I would have been instantly out. As much as I love this show, I felt like it needed to be exactly the same.
Even as a Solar Opposites fan who still enjoyed the heck out of Dan Stevens’ arrival in Season 4, I can attest to that show’s premise more naturally allowing for a character’s voice to completely change, while it would have been far more of an ear-sore for R&M, especially when it comes to repeats airing out of order. So even though the premiere’s audience was split over how successful the new actors were, that balance might have been far more one-sided with stunt casting involved.
Check out Harmon and Marder talking plot points for the premiere in the BTS video below.
Rick and Morty airs Sunday nights on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. ET, and can be streamed with a Max subscription.
