After months of delays and an April 1 surprise premiere, Rick and Morty Season 3 finally started to air its full run on July 30, debuting the second episode, a Mad Max spoof titled "Rickmancing the Stone." But in an interview for Time, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon revealed a major downside: Season 3 will have fewer episodes than planned.
And now we have a new update, with some truly bad news: Rather than 14 episodes, Rick and Morty Season 3 will only have 10.
8 more episodes of season 3. Best to savor each one slowly, with care.
— Mike McMahan (@MikeMcMahanTM) July 31, 2017
For many, the main takeaway from Harmon’s interview is that there won’t be an “Intergalactic Cable” anthology episode (though Harmon promises a “different take on a somewhat anthological episode” instead), but we’ve known that since January. Harmon’s real sad reveal is that Rick and Morty Season 3 won’t include the full planned run of 14 episodes. “We were supposed to do 14 this season,” Harmon said. “And part of our slowness meant we did less episodes than we were supposed to do.”
Well that sucks.
Harmon didn’t reveal how many episodes will be in Season 3 and Time didn’t ask, so cross your fingers for 12 or 13, rather than 10, the same number of episodes as last season.
UPDATE: Shit, it's 10.
But would it feel better to know a Rick and Morty movie is probable? “We haven’t thought about it, but it’s animation and it feels like the kind of thing that would be easier to get going,” Harmon said. “It will be interesting to start having those conversations.”
With both Harmon and co-creator Justin Roiland at San Diego Comic-Con and the Season 3 premiere approaching (will they re-run “The Rickshank Redemption” or run that and the second episode?), the press blitz has begun and new episode details are flying. Here are some other things we’ve learned about Season 3 in recent days:
Guest voices this season include Susan Sarandon, Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Keith David (returning as POTUS, rather than his other guest character, Reverse Giraffe), Christian Slater, Danny Trejo, Peter Serafinowicz and Thomas Middleditch.
Rick is more powerful than Doctor Who. Duh.
Revolio Clockberg Jr. a.k.a Gearhead, who betrayed Rick in a Season 2 episode (and got his genital gears swapped with his mouth gears in return), will return in a Season 3 episode.
Season 3 deals with Jerry and Beth’s ongoing divorce, placing significant focus on Beth. “She has been defining her life by her marriage straight out of high school to this unremarkable man that she in her mind compares to her mother, while fetishizing exceptionality in the form of her father,” Harmon said. “That excuse being removed, it just allows us to put the spotlight on Beth a little bit and start asking a few more questions about her, who she is in a vacuum.”
But more than specific reveals, it’s Harmons analysis of “The Rickshank Redemption” — the infamous Mulan Szechuan Sauce Season 3 episode already aired — that provide the biggest revelation for Season 3. Many have suspected, but Harmon confirms: Rick lies like a pro, which may mean telling a lot of truth.
When “The Rickshank Redemption” opens, Rick is in a Shoney’s family restaurant, soon to be revealed as the interior of his mind, where the Gromflomites who’ve imprisoned him hope to discover the key to his portal gun technology. Using an elaborate recreation of the death of his wife (and seemingly a young Beth as well), Rick tricks the Gromflomites and escapes. But is there any truth to this backstory?
Rick says no. “I’m not driven by avenging my dead family, Morty. That was fake,” he rants at Morty.
But Harmon puts that all into question, telling Time:
“That’s a pretty plausible origin story. He just happens to reveal that it was constructed to fool his insect handlers. But in my opinion, the best way to construct something is to take it from reality. How much of that fake origin story is taken from reality? And if any of it's real, how honest is Rick being with himself or with the viewer when he pretends that none of it matters? I don't think there's a single truth that you could ever learn about what's going on in Rick's head that couldn't also be undercut. Instead of that meaning that you'll never know the truth, another way of looking at it is that everything you've learned is the truth.”
In Barry Lyndon, under similar circumstances to Rick, in a conversation where only duplicitousness can save him, Redmond Barry, soon to fashion himself Barry Lyndon, offers some simple advice: “I was instructed, and it is always the best way, to tell as much truth as my story would possibly bear.” So is Rick pulling a Barry Lyndon? Or his “origin story” the fake he claims it to be? It’s part of Rick and Morty ’s intricate design that no certain answer will ever be revealed.
Rick and Morty Season 3 finally returns, shorter than expected, July 30.
