The two creators of Rick & Morty haven’t spoken to each other since…
Dan Harmon recounts in detail his falling out with Justin Roiland.
Season 7 of Rick & Morty will soon make its debut and for the first time it will be without Justin Roiland. Accused of domestic violence, the co-creator was fired. And his sidekick Dan Harmon didn’t try to save him. Because the two men behind Rick Sanchez and his grandson have been at odds… for ages!
In the Hollywood Reporter, Harmon looks back on his argument with Roiland and reveals that the two haven’t spoken since 2019 and the production of season 2. What exactly happened?
“He said things he’d never said before about being unhappy. And I remember telling him, the last time we spoke face to face, ‘I’m worried about you and I don’t know what to do for you.’ I was scared for him.”
According to him, Roiland had begun to isolate himself from most of the team members. Rick and Morty after the first season and brought in other writers, which began to create a rift between them. At the time of the second season, he sought out writers with whom he had worked in the past. Dan Harmon notes that he felt like he was being kicked out of the show he helped create, but Roiland saw things differently:
“Basically, what I wanted was that Justin and I could be lazier and lazier and not have to work anymore. That was the dream. We would have just been these creators full of ideas. Like: What if a genius had an ass instead of a dick? We’re going to do something crazy around a genius dick, and then they’re going to give us an Emmy, and it’ll be more ironic than ever! Except later, Dan brought his own authors and I was told that they didn’t see things the way I did…”
Harmon and Roiland attempted to smooth things over after the second season. But the conversation went wrong: “Honestly, I wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to me. Other than maybe, ‘I feel like I’m in your shadow and I wish I wasn’t… “
They still developed 4 seasons of Rick and Morty remotely, without ever exchanging. During the third season, Dan Harmon wanted to call on a mediator to try to save their relationship. But it was too late. The last time the two spoke was in 2019 via text message. “Things became confrontational and we reached a point of no return.”
