Posted in: Adult Swim, Preview, Rick and Morty, TV | Tagged: Adult Swim, dan harmon, rick and morty, season 8

Rick and Morty "In The Homestretch" of 70-Episode Deal; What's Next?

Co-creator Dan Harmon on Rick and Morty nearing the end of its 70-episode deal and if there's a future for the Adult Swim series beyond that.

While we still have the anime spinoff series hitting later this year – after the epic seventh season? It's understandable that Rick and Morty fans would be looking for any intel they can get their hands on the Emmy Award-winning animated series. With Season 8 set to hit Adult Swim screens sometime in 2025, animated series co-creator Dan Harmon offered an update on where things stand with that massive 70-episode deal that was announced back in 2018  – and if there was anything he could share regarding the show's future beyond that.

"We're in the homestretch. We're always one to two seasons ahead of what's happening on screen in the writers' room. Roughly it's around ten episodes left to write before we will be done with the 70. So, my job right now is to be working on the final 10 of that order. As for the question of what has everybody seen, where are they at? I think that puts them at 20 left," Harmon shared during an interview with Variety that went live earlier today. With the end of the deal in sight, has anything been finalized in terms of where things go from there?

"Plenty of time to figure it out," Harmon responded. "With something this satisfying for this many people, conversations like that happen all the time. And I would anticipate an announcement, one way or the other, about the future at some point in the future." When the interviewer noted that he was effectively vague, Harmon responded, "I don't want to get in trouble! But there will probably be news to come."

Rick and Morty: Season 8, More Evil Morty, Mr. Poopybutthole Theory

If you appreciated how Seasons 6 and 7 were able to maintain a proper balance between canon/mythology episodes and those standalone "classic Rick and Morty adventures," then you'll like what's in store for Season 8. "There's obviously been a lot of shakeups and transitions that have happened that are luckily coinciding with some of these canonical storylines being resolved. If I could set a framework for fans of the show, it's the old characters and all these things, but it's like, this is an opportunity for a rebirth," series co-creator Dan Harmon explained during an interview with Variety in late February of this year. "I mean, the kind of canonical things like searching for Rick Prime, these are things that come out of the ether, and then they acquire this gravity, and then they become a canonical serialized story. I think people should expect more random embers shooting off of that fire and turning into organically gigantic serialized things of their own."

But with Harmon being a fan of the standalone adventures, viewers shouldn't be expecting them to be going anywhere anytime soon. "I will always target the episodic personally. Because, like, your job is to fight gravity. And gravity is serialization. That's what happens organically; gravity is a great thing. But you're supposed to want to fly." Showrunner Scott Marder reaffirmed that the eighth season will be looking to strike the episodic balance that the previous two seasons achieved. "Eight will have a lot of similar flow and vibes to six and seven, which is like a cool balance of silly and one-up canonical stuff. That's the stuff I want as a fan. And that's the stuff that Harmon and I work on all jammed together. I'm really proud of these last couple of seasons; they're sort of the perfect blend of what I look for as a fan," he added.

Could that include the return of Evil Morty at some point? Most definitely – in case anyone thought his ominous warning before departing our dimension (with one serious ultimate weapon) in "Unmortricken" would be the last that we would hear from him. "We can expect to see him in the future. We certainly have plans and grand designs with him, for sure," Marder shared – though not confirming that his return would happen during the eighth season.

And then there's Mr. Poopybutthole question. Like us, a lot of folks are getting a feeling that Poopybutthole's overarching storyline is lading him to becoming a major big bad for our heroes. "Shit. Well, now we can't do that, or he can sue us, right? Good job, internet! You blew it again!" Harmon joked during the interview when presented with the theory. "No, in all seriousness, I do love that guy [the person who posted the theory online] so much; I want to encourage those kinds of theories. I love, love that stuff. I love him, particularly the amount of energy he puts into that stuff," the series co-creator added. While Marder found the theory interesting, he also shared that was "not their plan for him" – adding that "I always love what fans take and run with in any show."

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