Rick And Morty's Dan Harmon Shares Candid Thoughts On Fan Reactions To Justin Roiland's Replacements
Dan Harmon self-edits for no one.
Now that we’re four episodes into Rick and Morty’s seventh season, it almost feels quaint to look back at all the worries about how the Adult Swim mega-hit would survive losing and recasting co-creator Justin Roiland. The new episodes kicked off with multiple new voice actors in Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden, who portray the respective titular characters, and despite some of the fandom falling back on disappointed hot takes, the relatively smooth transition has been embraced (or at least tolerated) on the whole. And even though Dan Harmon has taught himself not to seek out audience reactions online, he shared his thoughts on the recasting feedback he’s been privy to.
Speaking with Gizmodo about the Season 7 journey so far, Harmon seemed pleased to see that fans have by and large given Rick and Morty’s creative team the benefit of the doubt when it comes to recasting the various characters that needed voices in the aftermath of Justin Roiland’s firing in January 2023. He’s definitely aware of those with more hyperbolically negative takes, but isn’t allowing those voices to rise to the top of the slush pile. In his words:
The Internet has never been known as a place for subtlety, and Dan Harmon is on the money with his assessment of fans who think that Rick's voice being slightly off every so often means that all of the jokes, sci-fi plotting, and other actors' efforts are all pointless, and why don't we all just go dive into a wood chipper because nothing can get worse than an adult-animated comedy!! Ahem. Those who adhere to such viewpoints presumably aren't all that educated on how TV shows are made.
Those kinds of overdramatized takes keep Harmon away from a lot of the more positive critiques and reactions to Rick and Morty, in the way that one bad apple can spoil an entire orchard. Here's how he put it:
Thankfully for his sanity, Harmon's friends and colleagues do reach out and send him examples of viewer praise and similarly pumped-up reactions from the fandom. So, for instance, he's been told that fans were loving this season's fourth installment, which featured the darkest spaghetti dinners known to mankind and beyond. (Check out what writer Heather Anne Campbell shared about the episode's deep origins.) Plus, the Community creator also praised the Rick and Morty subreddit for being a bastion of sanity and level-headed conversations amidst the cacophony of social media.
Rick and Morty airs every Sunday night on Adult Swim at 11:30 p.m. ET, and is available to stream with a Max subscription.
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Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper. Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.