More details are coming out about Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, and it sounds as though his problematic behavior was not limited to alleged domestic incidents and inappropriate interactions with fans.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with multiple sources behind the scenes at Adult Swim and Hulu, which airs Rick and Morty and Roiland’s other animated series Solar Opposites and Koala Man, respectively, and found that Roiland has barely been involved in the creative process behind voicing the characters in quite some time. And in some cases, it sounds like he barely even did that.
While Roiland and his fellow Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon initially had a good professional rapport together, things apparently soured in the second season when Harmon brought in writers from his NBC sitcom, Community. As the piece details, it didn’t take long for Roiland and his animator buddies to clash with the new creative direction. And during the third season, Roiland mostly had stopped showing up to work altogether.
When Roiland did make an appearance at the office, he reportedly brought chaos with him in the form of his dogs, toys, Kanye West, and even a porn star.
“At some point during the third season of Rick and Morty, multiple sources say Roiland simply stopped showing up — and when he did turn up in the Burbank offices, he’d typically avoid the writers room. In fact, Roiland’s colleagues often knew he was there only because they could hear his dogs. Or they’d hear his remote-control toy car, which had a microphone on top of it, zooming around the office.
At least once, Roiland sent it into the writers room, says a source. ‘You wouldn’t have seen him in weeks, and then you’d see the car come in, which was insane.’ Roiland would make exceptions to bring through famous fans, of which Rick and Morty has legions; at various points, his visitors included Kanye West, the comedians on Impractical Jokers and porn star Riley Reid, who gifted the room a succulent.”
It’s no wonder that Roiland and Harmon have supposedly not been on speaking terms for “several seasons.” But on the plus side, while all three animated series will be replacing Roiland as a voice actor, it doesn’t seem like his departure will have much of an impact on any of the series associated with his name.
