Rick and Morty is set to return for Season 8 at Adult Swim, but what has been confirmed about the release, cast, and story of the upcoming episodes?
Season 7 arrived in late 2023, bringing with it the biggest changes since the show's inception as it was forced to recast the many roles played by Justin Roiland (the show's disgraced co-creator and former lead).
This led to the series' arrival with a fresh cast of new and familiar faces, but, unfortunately, it saw a sea of backlash and mixed reviews for several major reasons.
When Will Rick and Morty Season 8 Release?
In August 2022, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon explained in an interview with The Wrap how the show was paced to "release things in a timely manner” going forward as the team was "so ahead of schedule."
“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever said about the show and it still feels unreal to say it, but we’ll be doing a season a year now. I still don’t understand how that’s possible. But that’s why it never happened on my watch. [Showrunner] Scott [Marder] is able to keep us on a schedule that mostly involves being so ahead of schedule that we can actually release things in a timely manner.”
Harmon may have once said the show was on track to "be doing a season a year now," but that was all before the turmoil of the Hollywood strikes. So, after Season 7 concluded in December 2023, is that prediction still on track?
In an interview with the French entertainment magazine Premiere in June 2023, producer Steve Levy revealed Season 8 was "already fully written" ahead of the WGA strike, with drawing work even underway on Season 9:
“Season 8 is already fully written, and we managed to draw a good part of Season 9 before the writers’ strike. So we are already talking about Season 10!”
But alas, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Season 8 has now been delayed to 2025, citing the five-month WGA strike as the cause after it delayed the start of production on the upcoming episodes.
It's likely the Season 8 scripts ultimately required some touch-ups and rewrites that led to this delay, with the SAG-AFTRA strike presumably then delaying recording work too and pushing the series' return into 2025.
Assuming these adjustments were minimal and not major changes in response to the bad reviews for Season 7, the show ought to return for new episodes on Adult Swim very early in 2025, likely in the first quarter.
With Rick and Morty set to skip out on 2024 altogether, this year will mark the first year with no new episodes of the animated sci-fi series since 2018, which was left vacant in the gap between Seasons 3 and 4.
Although fans of Rick and Morty can still look forward to some new content in 2024, as Rick and Morty: The Anime has been confirmed to premiere on Adult Swim this year, bringing with it a fresh take on the sci-fi mythos.
Who Will Appear in Rick and Morty Season 8?
Original star Justin Roiland was replaced for the voices of both Rick and Morty - along with many other fan-favorite characters - for Season 7, and that will hold true going into the upcoming Season 8.
As such, Ian Cardoni will continue as the new voice of Rick Sanchez and Harry Belden will reprise Morty Smith, despite mixed responses to their performances.
The rest of the Smith family will still be voiced by the same stars, including Sarah Chalke as Beth, Chris Parnell as Jerry, and Spencer Grammer as Summer.
While it's never certain who will pop up in Rick and Morty, some recurring characters likely to be back for Season 8 are Dan Harmon's Birdperson, John Allen's Mr. Poopybutthole, and Tom Kenny as Squanchy and Gene.
Below is a full list of those expected characters:
- Ian Cardoni - Rick Sanchez
- Harry Belden - Morty Smith
- Chris Parnell - Jerry Smith
- Spencer Grammer - Summer Smith
- Sarah Chalke - Beth Smith and Space Beth
- John Allen - Mr. Poopybutthole
- Dan Harmon - Birdperson
- Tom Kenny - Squanchy and Gene
What Will Happen in Rick and Morty Season 8?
With Rick and Morty, one can never truly predict what is coming next in the story, but if one thing is for sure, with both Evil Morty and Rick Prime now out of the picture, the sci-fi will need a new big bad to haunt the titular duo.
It's hard to tell exactly what threat they could face next on their adventures, but with evil versions of Rick and Morty now dealt with, perhaps it may be time for a more formidable Beth, Jerry, or Summer to rise.
During an interview with The Verge, creator Dan Harmon teased how "Season 7 just represents one more brick in that road" and Season 8 will be "even more so," sharing his hope for fans to have a "'we’re back, baby' kind of feeling:"
"Season 7 just represents one more brick in that road, and it’s Season 8, which is already written, when that comes out, I think it’ll be even more so. It’ll feel like a return to form and kind of like a 'we’re back, baby' kind of feeling, and hopefully, Season 9 will be that but, you know, even more so. But it’ll be because it’s been a gradual process of just trying to get our wind in our sails again."
Is Rick & Morty Season 8 the Final Season?
Going back to 2018 after the release of Season 3, Rick and Morty was renewed for 70 new episodes in a deal with creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland that would take the animated sci-fi through to the end of Season 10.
Obviously, over half of that deal has now been fulfilled, with work underway on Seasons 8, 9, and 10. Producer Steve Levy confirmed to Premiere in June 2023 that by then, they had already "managed to draw a good part of Season 9" and had begun "talking about Season 10:"
“Season 8 is already fully written, and we managed to draw a good part of Season 9 before the writers’ strike. So we are already talking about Season 10!”
During an interview with The Wrap, Justin Roiland explained how "the show could run forever," or at least "as long as [they] want it to."
Dan Harmon chimed in to add how the "longevity of the show... feels infinite," noting his belief that "a good TV show is one that lasts 1000 episodes:"
"As far as the longevity of the show, to me, it just feels infinite. That’s kind of the easy part. And I think that might be the cause of some frustration on the fans’ part, because my original commitment to just, I think a good TV show is one that lasts 1000 episodes."
He went on to explain the show was never conceived as one with an ending or an "inevitable conclusion coming:"
"That’s the nice thing about ‘Rick and Morty’ is I feel like from Episode 1 forward, there’s always been a commitment in the DNA of the show to not engage in so much soap opera-ness that there’s an inevitable conclusion coming..."
If the team behind Rick and Morty continues to get their way, it seems the animated sci-fi phenomenon won't be ending anytime soon. Rather, they seem to see the series more akin to long-running shows such as The Simpsons and Family Guy, provided of course the viewers continue tuning in.
Rick and Morty Season 8 will premiere on Adult Swim in 2025.
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