Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland doesn’t have much love for the animated sitcom’s fifth season. Speaking to IGN for an interview during San Diego Comic-Con, Roiland admitted to having mixed feelings about last year’s season, though there were extenuating circumstances.
“Season 5 was weird. We lost Mendel,” says Roiland, referring to line producer J. Michael Mendel, who died unexpectedly in 2019.
The show’s fifth season, which continued the adventures of chaotic Rick and his perpetually traumatized grandson Morty, put the spotlight on Evil Morty and his plot. As always, it featured a mix of high-concept sci-fi, clever writing, and seriously dark humor.
But even if the season largely lived up to the standards set by previous seasons, Roiland still has mixed feelings due to the circumstances of the show’s production.
“It was hard. They turned us upside down. That was…yeah. If I keep talking, I’m going to start crying,” says Roiland.
Now in its sixth season, which was confirmed to launch in September earlier this week, Rick and Morty has become known for its chaotic energy, quotable lines, and occasionally wild cultural moments. Originally something of a parody of Back to the Future, Rick and Morty has steadily grown into its own vast multiverse with a serialized story.
But as much as he’s grown up, Roiland still prefers the first and second seasons of Rick and Morty, which is due to the “goofiness and fun that was going on in the creative process.”
Justin Roiland shares his five favorite episodes
When asked what his five favorite episodes are, Roiland checks them off in no particular order: Total Rickall, in which the family deals with memory parasites; Rixty Minutes, the first cable episode; Big Trouble in Little Sanchez, or Tiny Rick’s; The Ricks Must Be Crazy, guest starring Stephen Colbert, and M. Night Shaym-Aliens, in which Rick, Morty and Jerry are trapped in an alien simulation.
Roiland recalls these episodes as similar to the “Rubik’s Cubes” that the team had to solve. He describes a scene in which he, co-creator Dan Harmon, and the rest of the team were gathered around a whiteboard, exhausted, discussing all the possibilities: “little things,” as if Jerry would lose his suit when the simulation disappeared. . .
Later seasons were a bit more formalized, Roiland says, less likely to veer wildly. “We weren’t going to rip it all up, throw it away and start over.”
The passing of Mike Mendel, who had previously worked on The Simpsons, The Critic, as well as Roiland’s Solar Opposites, was difficult and tragic for the Rick and Morty staff. Roiland wrote at the time“My friend, partner and line producer Mike Mendel passed away. I am devastated. My heart breaks for his family. I don’t know what I am going to do without you by my side Mike. I am devastated.”
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However, heading into the sixth season of Rick and Morty, Roiland seems more optimistic.
“I’ll say it’s a bit more canon,” he explains, though he says there will be a good “entry point” episode as well. “It really rewards the fans of the show that have been watching up to this point… So I think we finally got back into the groove of Rick and Morty, and I think Season 6 is… I didn’t particularly think Season 5 was bad, but Season 6 is amazing. It really is a quality season.”
As for his relationship with co-creator Dan Harmon, whom he compared to Rick at one point, Roiland says, “It’s a good one.”
“I mean, look, we work very differently and I don’t like to work. His philosophy is perfection,” says Roiland.
Roiland himself is busy as ever, working on Hulu’s Solar Opposites and continuing to run his own game studio, which is currently developing High On Life, an ambitious first-person shooter. Meanwhile, the sixth season of Rick and Morty is scheduled to premiere on September 4 on Adult Swim.
There’s plenty more coverage from San Diego Comic-Con, which wrapped up last Sunday, including our SDCC winners list and everything announced during the show.
Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN and a co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Do you have a tip? Send a DM to @the_katbot.