Rick and Morty co-creator and voice actor Justin Roiland is officially out of the Adult Swim franchise. While it and other projects he was tied to look to move forward without him, the internet has already championed a successor. Out of all the potential imitators online, voice actor Sean Kelly has frequently come up as a suitable replacement in comment threads, thanks in part to his massive presence on TikTok. The content creator recently hopped online to thank fans for their support and might even be campaigning for the job based on his latest uploads.
Sean Kelly, who can be found on TikTok as SeanKellySays, has a number of viral videos imitating Rick Sanchez, Morty Smith, and other characters voiced by Justin Roiland. The voice actor uploaded a video recently of his phone scrolling through the numerous comments of people requesting he become the next voice of the iconic characters, and just had one simple message for all those wanting him to take over the main voices of Rick and Morty:
Thank you so much for all the love ❤️
It's a short and sweet comment from Sean Kelly, who later noted elsewhere that he's sick and unable to record. Even so, it doesn't look like he wanted to go radio silent in the midst of all this drama, especially if Adult Swim is in the market for finding a new voice for Rick and Morty Season 7.
CinemaBlend's Emily Marek shared why she's no longer watching the Adult Swim series.
And while Sean Kelly hasn't publicly advocated for Adult Swim to hire him as the replacement for Justin Roiland in Rick and Morty, he's not dissuading anyone from continuing to advocate on his behalf. In fact, one of his more recent TikTok uploads was a video where someone re-dubbed episodes of the series with impressions he's done. For those who haven't had a chance to hear Kelly in action yet, take a listen below:
@seankellysays ♬ original sound - Sean Kelly
He's not a dead ringer when it comes to voicing Rick Sanchez, but it's close enough that I'd think most Rick and Morty fans would forgive the difference. The voices for Morty and Mr. Meeseeks are spot on, though, and definitely ones where someone might not know the difference if they weren't aware of the legal troubles that resulted in Justin Roiland's dismissal.
While Sean Kelly might be a strong candidate to voice the Rick and Morty leads, it's hard to know whether or not he'll actually be offered the job. Rick and Morty is a pretty out-there show, and replacing the character's voices with someone who sounds nothing like them wouldn't be the weirdest thing the show has ever done. Honestly, with all the incest storylines, I'm not even sure that would crack the top 3.
It's worth mentioning that the last time Adult Swim had to replace the lead voice actor in one of its series, it did not go for anyone similar-sounding. After the Squidbillies franchise removed actor and singer Unknown Hinson from the role of Early Cuyler for disparaging remarks he made about Dolly Parton, Tracy Morgan was brought in to voice Hinson's character in the final season. Morgan is a talented actor, but in no way did he sound like the original voice of Early.
It's possible that Rick and Morty would do the same if only to further disassociate its brand from Justin Roiland and his legal issues. Roiland is charged with one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, and/or deceit for an alleged incident with an unnamed woman he was reportedly dating in 2020. Roiland is due in court in April for the charges.
Fans of Rick and Morty can watch previous episodes of the series with their HBO Max subscriptions and keep an ear out for who might be the next voice of the animated characters. Hopefully, the search won't delay the premiere of Season 7, though if it does, one can certainly understand why.
