Rick and Morty's seventh season arrived on Adult Swim in the aftermath of Justin Roiland's firing and some major voice cast changes, and while a lot of attention went to the vocal performances, there were also some complaints about the episodes' adventure-of-the-week approach. I can understand why that might be the case after Season 6 ended on some pretty big reveals about Rick's origin, and without those events getting mentioned in Season 7's opening episodes. But regardless of what we've seen so far, there's good news to be celebrated about what's coming around the animated corner, at least according to Adult Swim's top brass.
Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen talked up Rick and Morty at New York Comic-Con not long before the official premiere date of Season 7. During the official Adult Swim panel (via Comicbook.com), Ouweleen confirmed that the show will soon jump head(s)first into the canon and even made a big reveal for what to expect during the midseason. In his words:
I think that these guys are so good at doing standalone Rick and Morty adventures and serving canon, so there is some good canon in this season. I think for the canon-minded it's great and you'll love it. And Season 7 sees whole new characters and new worlds actually that we haven't seen. So kind of about midseason, we're going to see stuff we've never seen before.
The first two episodes of Rick and Morty Season 7 were largely one-off standalone adventures even with Memory Rick involved, but rest assured that episodes on the way are set to advance the plot. Apparently, there will be new characters and worlds we've never seen before, and I know I'm hoping that neighbor Gene will be around to meet and visit them, respectively. Which could mean more adventures in uncharted territory that take the titular drunkard closer to his Rick Prime adversary, as well as introductions to some new creatures and people who weren't formerly voiced by Justin Roiland.
Michael Ouweleen said enough in the Adult Swim panel to more or less confirm that Rick and Morty Season 7 will continue its balance between story-driven and episodic formats. Part of the reasoning for the episodic adventures is to continue to serve the past characters that were created and give the fans more adventures with those oddball personalities. Hey, maybe if we're lucky one could even end up getting a spinoff.
Mr. Poopybutthole's intervention episode would be a great example of a fun but overall low-stakes adventure because it featured not only his return, but also those of Bird Person, and Squanchy. Of course, more serialized adventures could always incorporate these characters as well, but those adventures probably wouldn't be as much fun as learning Mr. Poopybutthole's wife left him for a Predator. That was painful, though maybe not as bad as the unintentional cameo that Hugh Jackman probably wished wasn't in there in hindsight.
There are ten episodes planned for Rick and Morty Season 7, so the series is not that far off from the midseason and some unexpected reveals. In the meantime, there might be a couple more one-off episodes, and for me personally, that's okay. Some of the best Rick and Morty episodes were one-off romps, and there's still plenty of time for this season to do another showdown between Ricks.
Rick and Morty airs on Adult Swim on Sundays at 11:00 p.m. ET. Tune in live, or set that DVR if you can't stay up late. Either way, this season is worth a watch, even for those that were on the fence about the show changing too much in Justin Roiland's absence.
