People were not exactly surprised when Adult Swim cut ties with Justin Roiland after he was charged with domestic battery. However, it looks like Roiland himself was confident that he wouldn't be removed from Rick and Morty and his other projects. A new report purports that Roiland believed that having key roles in the animated show meant that he would never be fired.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Justin Roiland didn't exactly play an important role in his projects like the public was made to believe. The in-depth report reveals that Roiland was less likely to show up for important meetings but executives simply waved away the unprofessional behavior and chalked it up to his eccentricities. Moreover, it was revealed that he rarely shows up for work and that several colleagues have not seen him for years.
“Multiple sources say that Roiland, other than voice work, has not had any meaningful creative presence on any of the series that bear his name,” the report reads. With that in mind, it looked like removing Roiland from Rick and Morty, which he co-created with Dan Harmon, was a lot easier than we were made to believe.
But what about Justin Roiland's voice roles in the shows? “He knew the power of being the voices,” a source told THR. It was also noted that "Roiland had revealed early on that he believed securing key voice roles would safeguard him from being fired one day." Still, that didn't prevent the writers from killing off a character he voices on Koala Man.
Roiland served as an executive producer on Koala Man but he was given a character to voice in the show’s third episode. Unfortunately, the writers had trouble keeping their deadline while waiting for him to show up and they decided to write the character off by the end of the episode.
Justin Roiland was 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 by the Orange County District Attorney’s office. According to a May 2020 complaint, The incident against a Jane Doe allegedly occurred in January 2020.
Roiland pleaded not guilty to the charges in October 2020 and the semi-sealed case was kept out of the public until a hearing on January 12, 2023. He is also required to attend a scheduled April 27 hearing.
Related: Rick and Morty: Justin Roiland Axed By Adult Swim Amid Domestic Abuse Charges
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