Rick And Morty Season 7 - Release Date, Cast, And More Info

It's been a while since season 6 of "Rick and Morty" concluded, and a lot has happened in the meantime. Most notably, news came out that the show's co-creator and most prominent voice actor, Justin Roiland, had been charged with domestic battery and false imprisonment in May 2020. Since then, there have been a number of other sexual assault allegations made against Roiland, as well as news that he was involved in a settled sexual harassment lawsuit back in 2019. In the end, Roiland was removed from both the cast and creative team, with Adult Swim announcing that his characters would be replaced with soundalike voice actors. 

Outside of Roiland's absence, there are plenty of other concerns and questions "Rick and Morty" fans have had over the past year. How will the show deal with this new evil Rick? Is the show really going to embrace a serialized structure, as Rick's final monologue implied? Could we be getting an Evil Summer, Evil Beth, or Evil Jerry down the line? And whatever happened to Jessica after she became a Time God back in season 5? 

We don't have the answers to these questions, but here's what we do know.

The first episode of "Rock & Morty" season 7 will air on October 15 at 11pm, on Adult Swim. It's a month later in the year than last year's season 6 premiere, which makes sense considering it was only in July that the show had finished "closing in on the end of" the process of recasting the new voice actors. The season will have ten episodes as usual, and there's no word yet as to whether they'll be any breaks in the season. The whole season should also be available on Max sometime in early 2024. 

For long-term fans of the series, none of this should be a huge surprise, as Adult Swim signed a 70-episode order for the show back in 2018 in the aftermath of season 3. Although "Rick and Morty" is no longer quite as fresh and buzzworthy as it was in those first few seasons, the show's still a reliable hit and Adult Swim shows no signs of pulling back on its agreement. The writers were already working on season 9 back in 2022, for example, so you can probably expect "Rick and Morty" to continue airing each year at a predictable schedule.

Season 7 will be all about Rick's quest to find Rick Prime, the alternate universe version of himself who killed our Rick's wife and daughter. Rick Prime should not be confused with Evil Rick, the season 1 villain who turned out to be Evil Morty's puppet; Rick Prime is a far more cunning villain, not driven by anger or revenge but by an apparent sense of complete superiority to the world around him. He's not necessarily a threat to our Rick and Morty, so much as he's an elusive murderer who never faced any form of justice for killing Rick's family all those years ago. 

It's not clear how long it'll take for Rick to finally track Rick Prime down, but the closing moments of season 6 give us a decent idea. "It's gonna take over your life, Morty!" Rick tells him. "Rick and Morty, season 7, hunting my nemesis! Maybe trying to stay healthy while doing it! Juggling plates! And not every episode, Morty! It could be all happening in the background! Who knows?"

It's a promising monologue, especially since a major fan complaint in recent years has been that the show's been neglecting Rick and Morty as the comedic duo that first hooked us in. The last few seasons have been less "Rick and Morty" and more like "The Sanchez Family." It was an approach that had plenty of perks, but a larger focus on the two titular characters might make for a fun return to form. 

As always, series regulars Sarah Chalke, Spencer Grammer, and Chris Parnell will be returning to their respective roles as Beth, Summer, and Jerry. Of course, we know the big question on everyone's minds is who's going to play Rick and Morty. The show hasn't announced the new voice actors yet, but one should expect an announcement any day now. Adult Swim's going to have to release a trailer sometime soon, after all, so it's not like they'll be able to keep any of this under wraps for much longer.

The replacement voice actors are such a big deal because Roiland has not only voiced Rick and Morty over the last six seasons, but also memorably voiced characters like Mr. Meeseeks, Mr. Frundles, Mr. Poopybutthole, and half of the other aliens on the show. It's been a running joke on this series that nearly everyone in the show's entire multiverse seems to sound the same. Getting people to cover all those voices won't be an easy task, but on the other hand, maybe it'll be better if the voices started to show a little more variety anyway.

There hasn't been much information released in this regard, but it seems likely that Wesley Archer will be involved. He's directed 43 episodes since he joined the show in season 2, and there's been no news indicating he plans on leaving the series any time soon. If Archer's name sounds familiar, that's because he's also a director on shows like "The Simpsons," "King of the Hill," "Futurama," and "Bob's Burgers." Regarding his time on "Rick and Morty," Archer has said, "I view [it] as sort of the successor to 'The Simpsons' if it had ever ended."

Some other directors who might be involved in season 7 are Jacob Hair, who helmed previous favorites like "The Vat of Acid Episode" and "Night Family." There's also Kyoung Hee Lim, who most recently directed episodes like season 6's "Juricksic Mort" and "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation." Relative newcomers to the series Douglas Einar Olsen ("Bethic Twinstinct") and Lucas Gray ("Mortyplicity") might also be directing another episode or two.

Production on "Rick and Morty" season 7 began years ago, which means that technically Justin Roiland was on the staff while this season was being written. However, multiple colleagues of Roiland have attested that the guy hadn't contributed creatively to the series in years. This might sound like an excuse to distance the show from him, but it matches with the general trend of how animated sitcoms tend to play out. Seth MacFarlane created "Family Guy" and voices half the characters, for instance, but he hasn't done much writing for the series since its early days. 

Dan Harmon is returning as the main showrunner, although he also clarified in season 6 that he's been taking a slightly less active role in the writer's room, giving younger writers more creative freedom than they might've had seasons earlier. As for who those other writers are? Well, back in August 2021, one of them (Cody Ziglar) tweeted, "That's a friggin' wrap on Rick & Morty season 7. We all stared into the abyss & saw the face of God & It was a Gundam." The tweet included a screenshot of a Zoom meeting of the writing staff, revealing that producer Albro Lundy, writer/producer James Siciliano, writer Alex Song-Xia, and writer Nick Rutherford are all involved in some capacity. 

Not yet, but you could expect some sort of trailer any day now. Even just a teaser could give us an idea of how the season will be structured, as well as let us know what these new voice actors sound like, and who they even are. 

It's also possible that the show will take a page from the same playbook as "Solar Opposites," which released a clip ahead of time showing Korvo (a Roiland-voiced character) get hit in the throat with a dart. As a result of the injury, Korvo's voice sounds different — he's now played by Dan Stevens — but Terry likes the new voice, so nobody makes any attempt to fix it. Will "Rick and Morty" release a similar clip? Will they also give its titular characters an arbitrary throat-related injury that changes them forever? It's anyone's guess. 

If it's anything like the previous seasons, "Rick and Morty" season 7 will continue to be rated TV-14 for most of its episodes, with a TV-MA thrown in every once in a while. Although this show has plenty of cursing and more than enough sexual references, its only really when things get super violent (like with the gruesome murders in season 3's "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender") that the show earns that TV-MA rating. 

Again, season 7 is still mostly a mystery so far, so things can change at any moment. While we wait for more information to roll out, make sure to be more like Mr. Poopybutthole in season 3 and do something productive with your life while you're waiting. Slowly but surely, "Rick and Morty" is coming back to our TV screens this October, and it'll be just as dark and twisted as ever.