Rick & Morty Season 7 Interview: EP & Stars Talk Wild New Episodes & Laying Ground For Show’s Future Canon

A mad scientist’s hunt for revenge comes to an emotional end in Rick and Morty season 7. Having set out to find the murderer of Diane across every reality, Rick and Morty teamed up with Evil Morty to bring down Rick Prime, successfully killing him and leaving the door open for the titular duo to return to classic adventures. The season also saw everything from Morty and Summer blending into a Kuato being to Rick being confronted by Unity again and the return of Water-T.

Following Justin Roiland’s dismissal from the show, Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden are now leading the ensemble Rick and Morty season 7 cast as the titular characters alongside returning stars Spencer Grammer, Chris Parnell, and Sarah Chalke. Seamlessly bringing in its new stars while also retaining the same self-aware humor and emotional character growth of its prior seasons, season 7 looks to be one of the best yet for the show.

Related

Rick & Morty Season 8: Cast, Story & Everything We Know

The raunchy adventures in time and space continue as Rick and Morty has been green-lit for a landmark 8th season, and updates are already pouring in.

Ahead of the show’s upcoming finale, Screen Rant interviewed executive producer Steve Levy and stars Harry Belden, Sarah Chalke and Chris Parnell to discuss Rick and Morty season 7, the recent wild episodes, and how the show is laying the foundation for future canon.

Levy, Belden, Chalke & Parnell Talk Rick and Morty Season 7

Screen Rant: Steve, I’d like to come to you first. This proved to be something of an almost troublesome year until you found Ian and Harry here. What is it like for you now being near the end of the season, and having made this pretty seamless transition between actors?

Steve Levy: It’s a huge relief, now, having been through all the tumult, and working our way, day by day, getting through it. I think the product speaks for itself, the show is, as it always has been, really great and fun, and maybe even better than it’s been, and we’re really proud of it. So, it feels great to have this season air in its entirety, 10 in a row, on time.

Harry, you’ve talked before about how the producers were jokingly keeping you and Ian separate just to drive you guys crazy. But I am curious, when did you first actually get the chance to meet him, and did you get the chance to actually record anything together for this season, or is that plan maybe for next season?

Harry Belden: Well, first, I met Ian at a Dodgers game in LA when we were maybe 60-80% of the way through the season, I think. At that point, I’d heard so much about him and whatnot that I just walked right up to him, and we saw each other, like, “Hey!!” It was really, very cool. And, we unfortunately did not get to record anything together.

But obviously, that didn’t stop us, he gave me a ride home that night, just doing a whole Rick and Morty car ride. It got us talking that we should absolutely be hounding Steve and Scott to let us do an episode together with both of us in the booth. I don’t know how feasible that is, but I’m going to keep asking until we can get something, because we have a pretty good rapport, and I think we would riff very well off of each other.

Chris, you had an absolutely wild adventure with Jerry this season in “The Jerrick Trap”. What was your first reaction when you learned that was going to be the story, and how did you go about prepping to essentially play three characters in one for this episode?

Chris Parnell: I basically find out when I get the script, but I had a pretty good sense of Rick. It was exciting, I’m always happy when Jerry gets to do something a bit out of the ordinary, and this obviously was. But yeah, I just tried to pull on my memories of how Rick sounds, and his inflections, and the way he says things, and I’d like to think I’ve heard him and seen him enough that it was kind of there, just kind of doing it in the Jerry voice.

Doing the Jerricky melded character, it’s just more space-like, sort of more robotic, that wasn’t too hard. They kept sort of pushing me that way, more neutral, and not sounding particularly like Jerry. I got to do it first, and then I think Ian had to match my pacing and stuff. But, even from the beginning, they had a sense of how they wanted him to sound, and so it wasn’t too bad, and a lot of fun.

I can only imagine trying to juggle all of that in one recording, but it sounds like it was quite fun to do! Sarah, I’ll turn to you next. I was actually kind of surprised that Beth and Space Beth were kind of left on the sidelines this season. I know seasons 8 and 9 are still in the works. Can we look forward to seeing more of those two in the future in comparison to this season?

Sarah Chalke: You’ll have to ask Steve that question. It’s written, but we haven’t read them yet, we just get them a little bit before.

Well, I’m gonna keep my fingers crossed. How did it feel, then, for you seeing what would go on with those two characters this season in comparison to prior seasons?

Sarah Chalke: You know, we get the scripts as we go, and it’s always fun to kind of get to see what you’re going to be doing. I have such a good time every recording. Whatever Beth or Space Beth is doing, I’m here for it.

Harry, given how big the shoes were that you had to fill coming into this role, how long did it take for you to really find your groove and feel comfort in the recording process for this?

Harry Belden: I think, for me, in terms of getting into the voice and feeling comfortable in the voice, I think a few episodes, for sure. Morty isn’t featured too heavily in the first three episodes. He’s there, but I think episodes 4 and 5, “That’s Amorte” and “Unmortricken”, is when I felt really like I was hitting a groove, you know, “Okay, now I feel comfortable being in the voice and doing it for sustained periods of time.” And, of course, embodying the character of Morty more and more.

So yeah, I think for me, it was about that four- or five-episode mark, and obviously, that was a huge thanks to Amy Chapman, our vocal coach. And, of course, Steve and Scott, who were so great about giving me direction, but also being like, “Oh, this sounds a little bit off here with this one thing, maybe let’s have that be homework and just work on that one little vocal variation,” which was just immensely helpful.

Steve, I can’t really talk about the finale, but at the same time, it drops a lot in terms of character development for Rick and Morty. Given how much the show toys with the nature of canon, how much of that is going to factor into the future of this show?

Steve Levy: We’re definitely going to be building off of where we leave Rick and Morty after the finale of season 7. That relationship is still top priority, they’re the lead characters of the show. But yeah, this season, I think, was mostly focused on Rick’s growth and coming to a head with something that’s been haunting him for so long. And then now turning to, “Well, now what?” So, we wanted to give Morty a little more heading into the end of the season, and I think we’ll be seeing a lot, seeing how that character growth turns out, continuing into the future seasons.

This season, in particular, sees a lot of the opening credits gags actually get explored in the episodes, but there are still a few that don’t get explored, especially with Beth. I’m curious what, from either this season or the past season’s opening credits, would you love to get to see actually be brought to life in an episode?

Sarah Chalke: The dancing Beths from this season. [Chuckles]

Harry Belden: Butter Morty. I need to know everything about Butter Morty.

Chris Parnell: Well, the way that Jerry splits thing happened is they had to record an episode here at my home, and when they came in, I was doing those splits on two chairs. So, they said, “Oh, we need to put that in the opening of the show.” So, I would love to see that explored more. [Chuckles]

About Rick and Morty Season 7

Rick and Morty is the Emmy award-winning half-hour animated hit comedy series on Adult Swim that follows a sociopathic genius scientist who drags his inherently timid grandson on insanely dangerous adventures across the universe. Rick Sanchez is living with his daughter Beth’s family and constantly bringing her, his son-in-law Jerry, granddaughter Summer, and grandson Morty into intergalactic escapades.

Check back soon for our other interview with Ian Cardoni and Spencer Grammer.

Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty is an adventure/Sci-Fi animated series that follows the intergalactic, inter-dimensional adventures of super-genius Rick Sanchez and his less-than-average grandson Morty Smith. Rick’s daughter, Beth, his granddaughter, Summer, and his hated stepson, Jerry, also take center stage more often than not. Hailing from creators Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the series blends comedy with science fiction as a way of exploring a wide variety of themes aimed at an adult audience.

Release Date

December 2, 2013

Cast

Spencer Grammer , Justin Roiland , Kari Wahlgren , Chris Parnell , Sarah Chalke

Genres

Animation , Adventure , Comedy

Seasons

6

Season List

Rick and Morty – Season 1 , Rick and Morty – Season 2 , Rick and Morty – Season 3 , Rick and Morty – Season 4 , Rick and Morty – Season 5 , Rick and Morty – Season 6 , Rick and Morty – Season 7

Story By

Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland, Tom Kauffman

Writers

Dan Harmon , Justin Roiland , Tom Kauffman , Eric Acosta

Network

Cartoon Network

Streaming Service(s)

Hulu

Franchise(s)

Rick and Morty

Directors

Dan Harmon , Ryan Ridley , Lee Hardcastle

Showrunner

Dan Harmon