The twisted animated sitcom Rick and Morty was co-created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. Apart from being the co-creator of the show, Roiland's vocal talent also brought life to their titular characters. Now, the question is, will Justin Roiland still return to voice Rick and Morty for Season 7?
Running since 2013, Justin's voice has been unforgettable for fans of the Adult Swim cartoon. However, earlier this year, precisely in January, the co-creator/voice actor of Rick and Morty was dropped by the company following his domestic violence charges.
Will Justin Roiland Still Be in Rick and Morty Season 7?
There's no question that the voice talent for Rick and Morty was exactly what made the characters iconic.
Easily recognizable by Rick's constant drooling, sputtering, and burping in every other sentence, and with Morty tripping over his own words, the voice actor brought them to life on television.
Although Adult Swim fired Roiland as early as the accusations were pitted against him, the charges against the co-creator were dismissed in March and led him to tweet his 'disappointment' towards the 'instant judgment' of the case against him.
In spite of Roiland's claims to defend his name, many victims came forward soon after to provide evidence that the accusations were true. Thousands of messages involved the co-creator striking up relationships with young fans (including minors), as reported by NBC News in September.
Upon Roiland's departure, fans campaigned for plenty of replacements for the voice actor, until Rick and Morty Season 7 found themselves one, as you can hear in the trailer.
Adult Swim had yet to respond to this, but on September 25, 2023, they paired up with Cartoon Network and released the official Rick and Morty Season 7 trailer featuring the titular characters talking - a whole lot.
As of writing, AS has yet to unveil who the mystery replacement is, but you can check out the new voice actor for Rick and Morty in the trailer below:
The New Rick and Morty Voice Actors Revealed
Rick and Morty Season 7 debuted on Sunday, October 15th. And as much as the Justin Roiland replacements were teased early on from the official trailer itself, the new voice actors' names were not revealed ahead of its release.
And yep, you read that right, voice actors with an 's'. There are two voice actors who joined the newest season, namely, Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty).
As it turned out, show creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder admitted on The Hollywood Reporter, that their casting calls for the roles took about six months. Here is how they ended up with Cardoni and Belden:
"Ian was one of the first people I heard when the search began; he was in the first wave: 'Mark that guy, he's got major flashes of Rick,' which was awesome. We found Harry a lot later. They just stood out. At [a] certain point, we couldn't expect the first wave to just nail it from start to finish. Anyone that we felt like had pure moments of either character, we had to bring back and see what they could do on their feet. We brought those guys back in with a wave of people a lot of times and made them go through a bunch of sides and do all scenes in a way we wouldn't even do normally just to see what their stamina was and if they could stay in voice."
In relation to the 'rigorous process' Harmon had put the two recently added to the roster, Rick and Morty is well-known for the brilliance of being in the moment.
Impromptus that wasn't scripted would lead to making episodes way better than they were initially penned, which makes more sense to embed it into this casting process.
What To Expect in Rick and Morty Season 7
One of the key questions that the Rick and Morty show has been dragging on is the mysterious death behind Rick Sanchez's wife.
It was a pivotal moment on the show, considering this is when the blue-haired scientist started jumping through alternate universes trying to fill the void inside of him.
As seen in the official Adult Swim trailer, Morty enters his grandfather's lair to find Rick searching cooking up something on his computer. The first thing he asked was, "Any progress?" to which Rick told him, "I found the version of me that killed my wife, you just missed it."
There's also a notable scene where Rick finally consults through a therapist. Though he still used a hologram of himself, there's a chance we're going to see an improved relationship amongst their family.
Not to mention, with this cryptic season summary teasing a recast, it also teases that the dysfunctional family we once knew may be getting a better approach this Season 7:
Rick and Morty are back and sounding more like themselves than ever. It's season seven, and the possibilities are endless: what's up with Jerry? EVIL Summer?! And will they ever go back to the high school?! Maybe not! But let's find out! There's probably less piss than last season. Rick and Morty, 100 years! Or at least until Season 10!
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