Fired Rick And Morty Creator Justin Roiland Reportedly Thought Landing Key Voice Roles Would Keep His Jobs Safe
The complete and utter implosion of Justin Roiland's massively successful animation career continues to be one of 2023's most shocking stories. The co-creator of "Rick and Morty" (with Dan Harmon) and "Solar Opposites" (with Mike McMahan), and executive producer of the just-debuted "Koala Man" (which features voice work from Hugh Jackman, Sarah Snook, and Jemaine Clement) was viewed admirably by his many fans as a subversive visionary. His shows are dark and painfully funny, but, deep down (sometimes deep, deep down) good-hearted. His characters are screw-ups scrambling to make sense of a world gone mad. They're misfits with whom disillusioned viewers could relate. If it came out that Roiland was spending as many hours in therapy as he was in the writers' room, no one would've been surprised.
But when a January 12 NBC News story revealed that Roiland was facing two felony domestic violence charges brought against him by a woman he was dating in 2020, the entire entertainment industry was left reeling. For fans who'd become emotionally connected to "Rick and Morty" and "Solar Opposites," it felt like a betrayal. Every questionable joke or plot development was suddenly magnified, while the series' sour worldviews now seemed more mean-spirited than heartbroken. This was especially true for "Rick and Morty" given that Roiland voiced both main characters.
Adult Swim and Hulu (which is owned by Disney) terminated their relationships with Roiland, but stated that the two shows with which he was creatively involved would, for now, continue to air under, respectively, Harmon's and McMahan's supervision. Fans' relationships with these series will never be the same, but, according to an article published today by The Hollywood Reporter, it sounds as though Roiland himself barely had any kind of relationship with his shows prior to his dismissal.
Roiland was absent, but entitled
Per THR's Lacey Rose and Katie Kilkenny, Roiland hasn't spoken to many of his "Rick and Morty" collaborators "in years." This includes Harmon, with whom he hasn't spoken for "multiple seasons." In fact, a "substantial number" of "Solar Opposites" and "Koala Man" writers claim they've never met Roiland at all.
Though Roiland reportedly hasn't set foot in the "Rick and Morty" writers room for years, he's still been voicing the two main characters (remotely, from home), which he believed made him unexpendable. "He knew the power of being the voices," said one unnamed source. As for his voice work on "Koala Man," that was very short-lived:
"On Koala Man, on which he's simply an executive producer, he was given a character to voice in the show's third episode but, per two sources, the writers almost blew their deadline waiting for him. The character was killed off at the end of the episode."
"Rick and Morty" writer Catie Delaney took to Twitter to corroborate the claims in THR's piece, calling the claims "absolutely true."
people are having a difficult time accepting this but for what it's worth it's absolutely true and I don't think people realize how easy it is to just not be around when you have a whole crew of people keeping the ship running https://t.co/JdY4cSpAM4
— caitie delaney (@caitiedelaney) February 7, 2023
Can these shows survive post-Roiland? Should they?
The entire THR article paints a portrait of an erratic, selfish, and amazingly cruel man who used his immense power to bully and demean coworkers and fans. His DMs were evidently laden with racist and homophobic language. He blamed one particularly ugly DM to songwriter Allie Goertz — who is, full disclosure, a close friend with whom I co-hosted a podcast several years ago — on his excessive wine intake, though his apology lost all its meaning when, in the same DM, he called her an "a**hole."
For fans of these shows reticent to stick with them, Rose and Kilkenny's piece makes it pretty clear that he hasn't been a meaningful part of the writers' room on either series for a long time (in the case of "Rick and Morty," it sounds like it's been it's been run almost entirely by Harmon since the second season). Whether that's good enough for fans is up to the individual. I certainly can't blame anyone for bailing on these series. It's a sad state of affairs, and a crushingly sad reminder that Hollywood's #MeToo reckoning is far from over.