While the team behind Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's Rick and Morty celebrate its second Emmys win in as many years for Outstanding Animated Program (and keeps the wheels turning on the fifth and sixth seasons), there's the matter of merchandising the fourth season. To celebrate the home release of the most recent season on Blu-ray and it's upcoming debut on HBO Max on November 1st, we have some cool new extras worth checking out.
First up, "Samurai & Shogun" director Kaichi Sato shared some of the original designs he pitched to executive producer Maki Terashima-Furuta and Jason Demarco, SVP/Creative Director for Adult Swim and co-creator of late-night anime block Toonami. As you can see from Terashima-Furuta's tweet that follows, it didn't take long for Adult Swim to give them the go-ahead:
The Rick & Morty season4 Blu-rayBox is out now! Also included "the Samurai and Shogun" which I directed, in a bonus feature.
first shown Rough design! https://t.co/Zx0oDOd0ik pic.twitter.com/0jaaHGJe6l
— kaichisato＠Samurai and Shogun (@kaichisato) September 26, 2020
These are the preliminary designs of Rick and Morty that @kaichisato pitched to us, and instantly approved by @Clarknova1. I am so pleased by how the final short turned out. 佐藤監督の初期のデザイン提案です。 素晴らしい作品を作って下さりありがとうございました。 https://t.co/QkzIsEvenQ
— 🍭Maki Terashima-Furuta🍭 (@MakiTerashima) September 26, 2020
And since there's no such thing as too much of a great thing, here's a look back at the original short:
In what many would consider a righteously different end of the pop culture spectrum, HBO Max not only found a pretty sweet "remix" way of celebrating the release of Rick and Morty Season 4 on the streaming service next month but also offered a counterpoint to Deadpool and Cable's views on dubstep. Folks, prepare yourself for a serious dose of "Wub-step":
During this summer's Comic-Con@Home panel discussion, Harmon revealed that he believes both Beths are fine not knowing- but he's not quite buying it with Morty and Summer (though when it came to that part of the storyline, Harmon said he had to "pinch it off" in the season finale to wrap things up). Speaking of "Clone Beth," Harmon also teased that there would be some "choice 'Clone Beth' fireworks" in season six (yes, you read that right), which he says they're "almost done writing." As for the fifth season, things are looking good as Harmon says they are "finalizing the finale." In the following fifth season preview, Rick is near death so it's up to Morty to save the day- and get back in time for a date with Jessica? Things don't quite go as plan, as the dimension-hoping duo end up facing Rick's previously-unknown nemesis… Mr. Nimbus?!?