Rick and Morty co-creator promises no more big gaps between seasons

Any Rick and Morty fan will tell you that the worst part of being a Rick and Morty fan is the long waiting period between seasons.

The hiatus between Rick and Morty’s second and third season, for example, was more than 18 months. It’s a long time, and it can leave people feeling antsy over when the new episodes will hit Adult Swim. But that gap will shrink in size going forward, one of Rick and Morty’s co-creators, Justin Roiland, told Polygon, following a demo of his new PSVR game, Trover Saves the Universe. Part of that has to do with Adult Swim ordering 70 more Rick and Morty episodes, giving Roiland and his co-creator Dan Harmon a little more security to flesh out episodes and move production along.

“We‘re super excited that, for the first time ever, we’re locked in, we know what the future is, we have job security,” Roiland said. ”Harmon is in great spirits, we have a great writer’s room. We want the episodes to stay good, but we do also want to try to turn them around a little quicker now that we have this big order, I think it gives us the ability to be faster. We’re not going to do these long breaks, these chasms in between seasons anymore. We’re going to schedule vacation time and just keep the machine going. It’s going to be really cool.”

So fans shouldn’t worry about waiting another two years for a season, despite previous reports that suggested Rick and Morty’s fourth season may not debut until late 2019. Roiland didn’t offer any information about when Rick and Morty’s fourth season will hit Adult Swim, but confirmed they started back up again in the writers room this week. Roiland is adamant that part of the goal — alongside creating good television — is to ensure the episodes get released quicker.

“It’s exciting, it’s a little surreal,” Roiland said. ”Even just being in the writers room for half the day every day this week, the ideas are ... it’s going to be great.”

The other Rick and Morty subculture that Roiland thinks is great — and wants to talk about — is merchandise. Seeing Rick and Morty’s faces on t-shirts (or even one-off characters that have developed cult followings, like Pickle Rick) still catches Roiland off-guard, but it’s a part of the fandom he hopes doesn’t disappear anytime soon.

“I can’t believe the merch, how big it’s become,“ Roiland said. “I’m waiting for it to be like, ‘That’s enough. Get it out of my face now.’ But hopefully if we put out really smart, funny episodes, we’ll be able to ride that wave.”