The waiting period between Rick and Morty season 3 and 4 lasted more than two years. Luckily, we won’t have to wait that long as season 5 production seemed on track. Adult Swim confirmed during season 4 announcement that 70 more episodes are already on their way. When is its schedule of release and what might happen during the season? We got you covered here.
Rick and Morty Season 5 Release Date
When season 4 was renewed, creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland spoke with EW about the succeeding future episodes. They said that “the plan has always been to get them out quicker.”
Harmon confirmed, “I think it’s safe to say without fear of being wrong that the gap between seasons three and four will be the longest and last time that it’s ever so long that it’s ridiculous. I don’t know how fast we can do it, but I know it will never be this long again.”
In an interview with The Wrap last June, Harmon also revealed that the team already began working on season 5. By that time, the covid-19 pandemic had just struck the U.S. in March 2020.
“We’re more on schedule than we’ve ever been,” he said. “It kind of makes you have to focus on the whole process when you don’t have this office environment anymore. Everyone has to run this bee colony remotely, so the honey just gets made more consistently. It’s working for us.”
Meanwhile, Director Erica Hayes told Inverse that it can take nine months to a year to deliver a finished product. From ideation and writing to animation, the length may vary given how complex the story requires. Nonetheless, it’s still a valuable perspective for all anticipating viewers.
In other words, since season 4 concluded last May, we might be looking at an early to mid-2021 season 5 premiere. To be precise, May 2021 feels like the most fitting scenario.
Rick and Morty Season 5 Plot
Aside from its unknown release date, Rick and Morty season 5 has not yet revealed much about its plot. Although back in May 2019, Harmon hinted at some potential season 5 ideas through an image on his Instagram account. He captions the post, “The amount of season five ideas Rob Schrab can come up with in a day is just awe inspiring from a certain distance at which I should have stayed.”
“There’s an episode in Season 5 where Morty has a relationship with another female character that’s not Jessica. It’s just a great little story and my very, very longtime friend and collaborator Rob Schrab wrote it,” Harmon added.
“He’s also a very tender writer – a juvenile John Hughes. He really feels heartache on a level a man his age shouldn’t… my Emmy is going to that one.”
Rick and Morty Season 5 Trailer
While it’s not the official trailer, Adult Swim did release a first look season 5 animation back in July 2020. The clip begins with Morty carrying a wounded Rick on what appears to be some kind of terrestrial planet.
Morty then flies through a closing portal back towards Earth, narrowly escaping a massive, tentacled monster. Moments before they’re about to die by their ship crashing into Earth, Morty calls Jessica to confess his love. She surprisingly invites him to hangout, which pushes Morty to make a successful crash-landing in the ocean.
Mr. Nimbus then appears out of a giant magical clamshell. He declares war against the two for supposedly “desecrating the sacred treaty between the land and sea.” Now, they must face the “wrath of Rick’s eternal foe.”
Rick and Morty airs on Comedy Central’s Adult Swim. It is also available to stream online via Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, iTunes, and YouTube.