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Rick and Morty: Dan Harmon ‘Optimistic’ About Season 4 Talks
Rick and Morty creator Dan Harmon says he’s optimistic about the progress being made in contract negotiations regarding season 4. After a season of hilarity, darkness and controversy, the future of Rick and Morty looks very much up in the air. Adult Swim has yet to order a fourth installment of the animated sci-fi series, despite season 3 scoring high in the ratings while turning the show from a cult hit into a pop culture phenomenon.
What’s the reason for the delay? In a recent interview on Kevin Smith’s SModcast, Harmon said it’s all about ongoing contract negotiations. This time around the negotiations have apparently become more heated than a family therapy session with Pickle Rick. It’s just the sort of thing you expect when a show expands its audience and consequently its money-making potential.
After leaving Rick and Morty fans in a greater state of anxiety than ever, Harmon has emerged to offer an update about those tense negotiations, and there’s good news to report (sort of). Speaking to Den of Geek at the Tribeca Film Festival, Harmon said he’s upbeat about the direction things are going as he and Justin Roiland hash out a new deal:
“I’m optimistic right now, at the moment. Negotiations are tough. It’s an unprecedented situation, and everybody’s being real cool and wants to make an agreement happen so that we can get started. That’s about all I can say.”
Fans growing testy about the lack of a season 4 pickup for Rick and Morty prompted Harmon’s original statements about his and Roiland’s negotiations with Adult Swim parent company Turner Broadcasting. Knowing how misplaced the passions of Rick and Morty fans can become, Harmon emerged on Twitter to tamp down the flames, insisting that all the anger in the world won’t make a difference to the suits. Harmon’s new remarks don’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence that Rick and Morty will return soon, but they do at least indicate things are moving (very slowly) in the right direction.
So if you’re a Rick and Morty fan, the only move right now is to remain patient. But of course Rick and Morty fans often have issues with being patient, as the world learned during last year’s embarrassing Szechuan sauce catastrophe. As you may recall, fans descended upon McDonald’s restaurants in droves after the fast food chain, inspired by an insanely esoteric Rick and Morty joke, reintroduced a long-forgotten McNuggets sauce variety. When the Szechuan supply ran out, fans basically started rioting. This prompted McDonald’s to apologize and promise more Szechuan sauce.
Though complaining may have helped in the case of Szechuan sauce, it won’t help Rick and Morty season 4 arrive any sooner. The business side needs dealing with before creative activity on the show can resume (assuming Harmon and Roiland don’t just go back to procrastinating as they admit they did before season 3). If you’re a Rick and Morty fan suffering intense withdrawals, it may help to check out one of these other shows. But yelling on Twitter won’t help.
