Rick and Morty Changed Voices for Season 7 and It Works

Justin Roiland was kicked out of his show. However, he did the voices of the two heroes which were recast, as close as possible to the original.

It’s the same, but it sounds slightly different. Rick and Morty have changed their voices somewhat. The co-creator Justin Roiland was fired in January after being accused of domestic violence. Those charges have since been dropped, but the man behind the scientist and his grandson was also in the crosshairs for inappropriate sexual behavior. And as he was estranged from his co-creator Dan Harmon, since season 2 (!), the situation was starting to become untenable behind the scenes. SO Justin Roiland was kicked out and the voices from the animated show had to be recast.

Rick Sanchez’s voice is now performed by Ian Cardoniwhile Harry Belden provides the voice of Morty Smith. Roiland also voiced recurring characters, like Mr. Poopy Butthole, who was at the center of the first episode of season 7. These are therefore different actors who were recruited by the showrunner Scott Marder and the producer Dan Harmon. They detail in THR: “Multiple actors was easier to manage, given the amount of work required for both characters. We’ve seen over the years wear and tear on Roiland’s voice. It was unfair to do that to someone.”

Dan Harmon also explains that there was the idea of ​​”disrupt the fans as little as possible.” Obviously, the idea was not to shake up the series, but to stay as close as possible to what it has already delivered for 70 episodes.

“We heard from thousands of candidates. It took six months. It was harder than we thought. Rick was a lot tougher than I expected. All the candidates sounded like Macho Man Randy Savage or to one of his cousins. No one looked exactly like Rick.”explain Dan Harmonwho says he had to find an actor capable of reproducing the voice, without doing a parody-style imitation.

And the result is frankly stunning. After seeing episode 1 of season 7, the first observation is simple: Morty’s voice has hardly changed. If we can hear one or two variations in intonation, it is not difficult to blame this on a teenager who has not yet changed and whose voice will evolve naturally, anyway. For Rick, the voice is very close, but not quite the same. It sounds deeper and deeper at times. Less hysterical too. But to tell the truth, this is barely perceptible and if we had not been aware, before broadcast, of the chaos behind the scenes and the departure of Justin Roilandwould we have even noticed it?

Either way, firing the co-creator shouldn’t really change anything narratively: “No ! We were already seasons ahead.” assures the showrunner. “DSince I’ve been one of the authors, it’s Dan Harmon, me and our team writing and moving forward alone without him. When he left, he left in name only.”

Finally, it should be noted that in the French version, the voices of Rick and Morty are provided by Alain Eloy (Rick) and Thibaut Delmotte (Morty) since the start and they have not changed.