Posted in: Adult Swim, Max, Preview, Rick and Morty, TV, YouTube | Tagged: Adult Swim, rick and morty, season 7, season 8

Rick and Morty Team Breaks Down Brutal Rick Prime Beatdown, Impact

Director Jacob Hair, Dan Harmon, and more discuss the importance of getting the game-changing Rick and Morty episode "Unmortricken" right.

It's been a rollercoaster month for Adult Swim's Rick and Morty – and we're only one month into the new year. On the plus side, we've got Rick and Morty: The Anime from Takashi Sano (Tower of God) arriving later this year. This month also saw the seventh season officially hit Max – meaning that we can take our time obsessing over any clues that we might've missed. And that's a good thing because, on the not-so-plus side, we also learned that Season 8 won't be ready to hit screens until 2025. That's why we're glad that the late-night programming block is releasing more of these behind-the-scenes featurettes offering deeper dives into how each episode made it from the page to the screen. In the video above, director Jacob Hair, series co-creator Dan Harmon, art director James McDermott, and character design lead Adam Burnier discuss the importance of the game-changing episode "Unmortricken" and the time it took not just to tie together a number of previous plot threads but also to do right by the importance of the moment visually. For example, Burnier explains and shows us what went into properly progressing Rick Prime's injuries and matches it with his speech as he's berating Rick – while Rick beats him to death.

With the seventh season now streaming on Max and the creative team in the middle of writing the ninth season, we thought that we would pass along another look at our early thoughts on where we think things could go during the eighth season -and beyond. From Rick's quest for infinite power and Evil Morty to Fear Hole and Beth/Space Beth, here are some flames from our dumpster fires of random speculation:

Rick Has Bigger Plans for Infinite Power: We know that Rick was looking to tap into the afterlife for a lifetime supply of infinite power, which would be a great thing to have from simply just a day-to-day basis. But what if Rick is looking to get access to an endless supply of power for a greater purpose? We might be looking at one of the key things that Rick might need to bring Diane back – and if getting the Omega Device is needed to make that happen, we have the perfect reason that Rick would need to defy Evil Morty's warning. And speaking of Evil Morty…

Evil Morty's Finally Had with "The Rick and Morty Experiment" – But Rick's Ready For It: What if Rick and Morty end up going after Evil Morty, and the eye-patched big bad follows through on his promise to erase the dimension-hopping duo from infinite existence via the Omega Device? We know that Marta-Morty was left alive in a constantly running Roy game at Blips and Chitz (S06E02: "Rick: A Mort Well Lived") and that Memory Rick (from S05E08: "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort") was left behind in Jerry's mind in S07E02: "The Jerrick Trap." Could there be a "Booger AIDS" file with Summer's name on it that could see those slivers of Rick and Morty be their lifelines back to existence. And then, imagine the fallout from that – the possibility that our Rick and Morty could end up being the only version in an infinite sea of universes.

Rick and Morty Have Nothing to Fear But… Fear Hole Dude: There's no way that Rick and Morty are done with the Fear Hole dude from S07E10: "Fear No Mort." The first thing we need to know is what's the endgame? We know that the Fear Hole "nibbles" away at the fear of those who enter it, but that just sounds like a nice way of saying "feeds off of." Along with that, looking back at how our duo ran into Fear Dude seemed a little "coincidental" to our liking – and the fact that he was nowhere to be found at the end is not the way a one-and-done big bad usually exits the series.

Space Beth/Beth: A Final Answer: Just to be clear? I'm throwing this out there as part of my brainstorming possible storyline paths – that doesn't necessarily mean I endorse it. That said, it would be interesting if we got a final answer on the Beth/Space Beth dilemma – but I don't know how you could best do that without having to lose one of them… WHICH I DON'T WANT, JUST TO BE CLEAR! From a storyline perspective, having either Beth or Space Beth without the other, left to wonder if they're real or a clone, would be a pretty deep & dark direction to go – and it could also be an interesting one. Imagine – after swearing that there's no way anyone could ever tell who's who – Rick reveals he left an "identity cheat" behind –  just in case?

We Might Have a Growing Mr. Poopybutthole Problem: When we learned that Mr. Poopybutthole would be the focus of the season opener, we felt optimistic for Wayne. Clearly, S07E01: "How Poopy Got His Poop Back" was gonna help him get his groove back. But it didn't – and it actually left us feeling more concerned about him than before the season opener. Those concerns only got worse during the post-credits scene from season finale S07E10: "Fear No Mort," when we see Poopybutthole use a stolen portal to swap places with a version of himself who's still married to Amy – but Amy shoots a glare at the end that makes it clear that things are definitely not alright. Could this end up being a storyline that gets picked back up during the eighth season? Because if Poopybutthole can get himself back to his earlier-seasons self and add an evil streak, there could definitely be some problems in the near future.

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