Posted in: Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Max, Rick and Morty, TV | Tagged: Adult Swim, dan harmon, Justin Roiland, rick and morty

Rick and Morty: Dan Harmon Addresses Justin Roiland Allegations & More

Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon discusses why he believes his relationship with Justin Roiland deteriorated, new allegations, and more.

With Adult Swim's Rick and Morty set to return for its seventh season next month, we were wondering when we would hear from series co-creator Dan Harmon regarding Justin Roiland, the previous & current allegations against Roiland, and the impact it had on the series. It looks like today is that day, with The Hollywood Reporter interviewing Harmon for a profile feature & interview where Harmon shares his perspective on how his partnership with Roiland deteriorated, his final exchange with Roiland in 2019, why he avoided being involved in the process to find Roiland's replacement and his thoughts on the most recent allegations against the series' co-creator.

In an online feature article from The Hollywood Reporter from earlier this year that offered insight into the Emmy Award-winning series from those in & around its soon-to-be seven-season run (with the focus on Roiland's conduct), one topic that was addressed was how Roiland began to dial back his direct involvement in Rick and Morty during the second season. In addition, some of those interviewed addressed how they felt that Harmon was looking to control the writers' room by staffing it with writers that Harmon worked with on Community – a charge that Harmon says couldn't be further from the truth. As Harmon saw it, the move would allow the show to focus more on attracting network primetime audiences, but he also understands how it must've looked to everyone – including Roiland.

"If anything, what I wanted was for Justin and I both to be able to be increasingly lazy and not show up for work. That was the dream. We'd be these rich idea men. He could roll around and go, like, 'What if a genie had a butt instead of a dick?' And I could be like, 'Yeah, and plus, we're going to make people cry about it, and that's going to make them freak out. It's a story about a genie butt dick, but then we'd win an Emmy, and it'd be more ironic than ever,' Harmon shared. "And then I'd come to find out later that it was like, 'Oh, Harmon brought in his Harmon writers,' and, man, that is not how I saw it."

As the work increased and the hours became longer heading into the end of Season 2, Harmon says that Roiland shared with him just how much he was no longer enjoying working on the show. "Honestly, I wasn't sure what he was saying, other than, maybe, 'I feel like I'm in your shadow, and I wish I wasn't,'" Harmon added, feeling that Roiland saw the situation as being Harmon's fault.

Harmon on Mediator Being Brought In During "Rick and Morty" Season 3: "I always felt like Justin wanted everybody to make him feel more comfortable, and I was just like, 'Everybody wants to make you comfortable, communicate, tell us how to do that.' I was freaking out about the whole thing because I wanted the partnership to function. I wanted him happy because when he's happy, we have a hit on our hands." But when the animated series locked in a 70-episode order from Adult Swim, things between the two improved dramatically – but not for long. "It was like Justin and I were in love again because we were dealing with the powers that be and talking about how rich we might be if we negotiated together," Harmon shared.

His Last Conversation with Roiland "Left Harmon in Tears": "He said things that he'd never said before about being unhappy, and I remember saying to him the last time we spoke in person, like, 'I am worried about you, and I don't know what to do about that except to give you all the string and also just say I'm scared that you're not going to come back.' But then this conversation became unprecedentedly confrontational. [pauses] I think that's as far as I get to take the story. At that point, we're no longer both there for it, and it starts to become not only unfair for me to continue but totally uncomfortable because, from there, a friendship goes away, and I still don't fully understand why."

Harmon "Largely Avoided" Casting the New "Rick and Morty" Voice Actors Out of a Sense of "Denial': "It's all just sad because the goal is for it to be indistinguishable. At the same time, it would be absurd to suddenly decide that the entire foundation of your creative project was, oh, coincidentally, unimportant."

Harmon on Recent NBC News Allegations: "The easiest thing for me to say about Justin has been nothing. Easy because he isolated so well and easy because I'm nobody's first choice as a judge of anything or anyone. This is where I'd love to change the subject to myself, to what a piece of crap I've been my whole public life. I would feel so safe and comfortable making this about me, but that trick is worthless here and dangerous to others. It's other people's safety and comfort that got damaged while I obsessed over a cartoon's quality. Trust has now been violated between countless people and a show designed to please them. I'm frustrated, ashamed, and heartbroken that a lot of hard work, joy, and passion can be leveraged to exploit and harm strangers."

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