The future of Rick and Morty is in turmoil, as Adult Swim parts ways with one problematic creator, but keeps another on.
Justin Roiland was a staple of the adult animated show before his various misdeeds saw the program cut ties with the 42-year-old actor and writer. Roiland, who voiced both Rick and Morty on the popular series—along with various side characters—is officially out, but his co-creator remains attached to future seasons. Dan Harmon isn’t facing quite the pushback Roiland was, but the recent focus on Rick and Morty is bringing his own problematic history to the surface.
Roiland’s career took a major blow over the last few weeks, after details about inappropriate interactions with various people, as well as domestic violence charges, emerged. He’s since been removed from the Rick and Morty team, as well as Squanch Games, but Dan Harmon—Roiland’s partner—remains.
This doesn’t seem like a great idea, if you ask the horde of Rick and Morty fans out there. Harmon’s own problematic tendencies also came to light during Roiland’s ousting, and—while fewer concerning comments about minors emerged—Harmon is no saint himself. The Community creator has been in hot water before, after he became obsessed with, and sexually harassed, one of his female writers.
This history, paired with Roiland’s recently-unveiled behavior, has many fans begging for an entirely new Rick and Morty team. News that Harmon will remain attached to the project, even as Roiland departs, is pushing fans to urge Adult Swim in a new direction. They’d like to see Harmon removed from the team as well, and a pair of fresh, unproblematic creatives hired in he and Roiland’s place.
Twitter is awash with viewer pleas to remove Harmon from the Rick and Morty team—and maybe even the upcoming Community movie.
The conversation surrounding Harmon is a bit more complex than that surrounding Roiland, largely due to a years-old apology. After word spread of his harassment of a writer, Harmon made a lengthy public apology that was called a “masterclass in How to Apologize” by Megan Gaz, the writer in question. She publicly accepted his apology, and things were seemingly smoothed over for Harmon.
Fans of the 50-year-old sitcom aficionado are leaning on his 2018 apology as proof that Harmon learned from his mistakes, but its far from enough to convince everyone. Pair this with frequent complaints about Harmon’s seeming obsession with incest, and quite a few Rick and Morty fans would be delighted to see him removed from future seasons.
As of now, Harmon is still set to remain as a staple of Rick and Morty‘s creative team. His apology seems to be enough for Adult Swim, and the show’s certainly never shied away from incest before. Unless more allegations against Harmon come to light over the next few months, it seems likely that Harmon is here to stay.