Dan Harmon speaks to fans who accept Rick and Morty’s new voices

Season 7 of the long-running animated series Rick and Morty Following the departure of co-creator Justin Roiland, new voice actors were introduced for the main roles. There was some uncertainty behind the scenes about whether the series would move forward with the change, but co-creator Dan Harmon has acknowledged that fans have welcomed this “new era” of the show.

Harmon spoke about continuing without Roiland in a new interview with Variety. He talked about the challenges that Rick and Morty faced with season 7 due to behind-the-scenes issues and the recasting of the main characters. Harmon admitted that he was worried that fans might not accept the show before the new episodes were released.

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“I think a reboot is a good way to look at it,” Harmon said of Season 7, which marks a new era for Rick and Morty. “We had so much drama behind the scenes that I didn’t think we needed a lot of irony and narrative challenge on screen. I think the experiment was: Can we successfully pull off the show in the future? Can fans not miss their favorite show and not be distracted by all the turmoil?”

Replacing Roiland required a thorough search with countless candidates trying to match the voices of Rick and Morty as closely as possible. Harmon noted that the series is designed to continue for much longer, but that means the protagonists are still the same. This can only work if the transition with the new voice actors is as seamless as possible so as not to “disrupt” the series. Fortunately, Harmon is happy with the result of the new season.

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“This is not about me,” he said. “This is not about culture wars. And this is not about my reputation. This is not about my friendships. This has nothing to do with me other than the fact that I am uniquely qualified to contribute to this process. This is about a living, breathing personality – two of them – and Millions of people who don’t want this show to be disrupted. That is a noble and worthwhile and very healthy goal. I think we have achieved that. And I am very proud and grateful that it turned out this way.”

It won’t be the behind-the-scenes drama that kills Rick and Morty

When asked if he felt that fans had accepted the voice actors and the new era of the show, he added: “That is my perception. That the goal has been achieved or that those who wanted to achieve it say: “I can’t tell the difference. The characters are the characters, let’s move on.” As far as I know, we have it behind us. It worked, we entered a new era and if the show sucks from now on, it will be for the usual reasons any show can suck.. Not because of these dramatic events.”

After six seasons, Roiland was fired from the show due to allegations of domestic violence. The charges against Roiland were later dropped, although he came under further criticism following further allegations that he had behaved inappropriately toward minors on social media. After the charges against him were dropped, Roiland called the allegations against him “false and defamatory.”

The roles of Rick and Morty are now voiced by Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden respectively.

Source: Variety

Rick and Morty

The dysfunctional family life of a nihilistic mad scientist and his angsty grandson is complicated by their interdimensional misadventures.

Release date

December 2, 2013

Pour

Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, Sarah Chalke

Seasons

7

Creator

Justin Roiland, Dan Harmon

Number of episodes

71

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