Remember when Rick and Morty took extra-long breaks between seasons? Those days are over. There has been a new episode of the hit Adult Swim animated series every year since 2019 — except for this year.
Rick and Morty season 7 (the first season without fired co-creator Justin Roiland) premiered and ended in 2023, and season 8 isn’t expected to debut until 2025. Perhaps sensing a gap in the schedule, Adult Swim is turning the viral Rick and Morty anime-inspired shorts into a season-long show. Rick and Morty: The Anime is for the Toonami fans out there.
Here’s everything you should know about Rick and Morty: The Anime.
Plot
Following a number of well-received shorts (which you can watch on YouTube), Rick and Morty: The Anime will follow Rick as he “relaxes in a pseudo-world between multiverses,” according to the Adult Swim synopsis, while “Summer helps Space Beth fight the evil Galactic Federation, and Morty falls in love with a mysterious girl who happens to be an atemporal being.”
Also, Jerry does Jerry things.
Rick and Morty: The Anime is directed by Takashi Sano, who teased the dynamics of the 10-episode series. “The multiverse-straddling exploits of Rick and the gang pose challenges to the family bond, but they always rise to the occasion,” he explained in a statement. “It’s such a life affirming sight, and Jerry is no exception. I am honored to have been given an opportunity to tell a new story about this amazing family. I hope you enjoy their adventures!”
Sano’s goal is “to take all my favorite parts of watching Rick and Morty, compress the down to extract their essence, and then add a unique Japanese twist,” he said. “I’d like you to enjoy Rick and Morty’s adventures as they are wisked through time and space, tangled up in all sorts of chaos.”
Get ready to have the opening song stuck in your head.
Cast
It doesn’t appear the voice cast has been officially announced yet, but in the existing shorts, Rick and Morty are voiced by Yōhei Tadano and Keisuke Chiba, while the voices of Jerry, Beth, and Summer are provided by Manabu Muraji, Jun Irie, and Akiha Matsui, respectively. This could change, however, since the most recent short premiered in 2021, and the voices of Rick and Morty on the original series have changed since then for… reasons.
Release Date
Rick and Morty: The Anime doesn’t have an exact premiere date, but it will be “sometime this year” on Adult Swim and Max.
Trailer
Adult Swim released an early preview of Rick and Morty: The Anime on YouTube, which you can watch below.
