‘Rick and Morty’ Boss Dan Harmon Clarifies Season 3 Delay, Cancellation Rumors
Rick and Morty has yet to set a Season 3 debut, even as the April Fools premiere promised a “summer” airdate. The delay once again spun rumors of cancellation and infighting, to which co-creator Dan Harmon now offers a lengthy and “less dramatic” explanation that they were “scared” to let down fans.
It was back in January that Harmon’s interview comments about “fighting” with co-creator and Rick and Morty voice Justin Roiland shaped perception of why new episodes hadn’t premiered since October 2015. Harmon subsequently took to Twitter to set the record straight, but more recent rumors about the Adult Swim fan-favorite’s cancellation had him looking to address the delay once and for all.
For brevity’s sake, we’ve collected the tweets in paragraph form:
Justin and I are very regretful about the season taking way too long. I want to explain “what happened” because it’s way less dramatic than you might ever imagine. Post internet TV audiences are so used to finding out there’s an intriguing/confusing/intense reason 4 delays, and Christ knows if you’ve ever seen MY name on the internet I’ve only got myself to blame for an association with intrigue/confusion/drama. But the truth in this case is so very boring.
I will put it to you as objectively as I can, though we aren’t talking about an auto plant. The reason S3 took long is because it took long to write, because it was S3 of a show that we were scared to make worse than S2 or S1. It’s a common yet odd phenomenon. Tail-chasing, perfectionism, overthinking? One prob is that any description you pick for it is going to have a falseness. If I say “we overthought” someone else could say “well, no, we thought the right amount,” it’s like talking about religion or something. It feels I think, to writers, sacreligious and ineffective to open the creative process and poke and label. But don’t worry about the content, because, the reason overthought slows you down is, you just do way more versions of stuff than needed. You usually end up back where you started. So as far as I can tell, although I’m too close to it, it’s just another good season of RAM. […]
As I speak, more articles are coming out about me and Justin fighting. Because it’s a less boring reason for a season to take long, and because I’m Dan Harmon, so it’s a smart f–ing first guess, it just happens to be hilariously not true even in the slightest. If you do know of me at all you know that if Justin and I HAD ever fought, not only wouldn’t we be able to keep it secret, we’d be all too eager to share it with you. Also, that’s not what would make the show slow down! Fighting probably would have been a good idea, it might have sped us up.
Harmon went on to specify “we talk to each other about how we can avoid it happening again and I’m pretty sure the reason it won’t is cuz it happened,” though Adult Swim has not formally announced a fourth season. And while Harmon had no premiere update to offer, we’d bet good money news will arrive within the next few weeks at Comic-Con.
In the meantime, watch the latest Season 3 previews below, and stay tuned for more on Rick and Morty’s future.