Don't Worry, Rick And Morty Fans: Justin Roiland's Replacements Sound Just Fine
When the first promo for "Rick and Morty" season 7 featured only Summer and Beth, some fans found it to be a little concerning. To a casual viewer who hadn't been following the behind-the-scenes news, it might've seemed like an innocent choice to give us a "Rick and Morty" promo that didn't include Rick or Morty. But for those who were already aware that co-creator and prominent voice actor Justin Roiland was removed from the show due to a whole bunch of troubling allegations, this was a cause for concern: Why was the show playing it so coy? Did they lack confidence in the new voice actors, whoever they were? Did they know we'd hate them at first? Did they want to postpone the backlash for as long as possible?
But after just a few minutes of the first episode, it's clear these worries were unfounded. The season premiere, with its sophisticated episode title "How Poopy Got His Poop Back," focuses mainly on Rick and the recurring Mr. Poopybutthole, two characters who were memorably voiced by Roiland throughout the first six seasons. In the opposite of what the promos implied, this is not a self-conscious premiere. Rather than give us a Beth, Jerry, or Summer-centric episode to ease us into this transition, this episode puts all the heavy lifting on these new voice actors straight out of the gate.
And luckily, they've proven themselves more than up for the job. Although I did notice some slightly-off moments of delivery where I could pick up on the switch, by the halfway point I'd grown so used to these new voices that I forgot to even compare them to Roiland's at all. The transition is remarkably seamless.
A smart approach
The main benefit of a premiere that largely ignores the non-Roiland cast members is that it forces us to get used to the new voices, to move past whatever misgivings we might've had. I'm sure if you played this episode alongside one from last season, most people would be able to pick up on a few differences, but by the time this episode ends, those differences have long faded into the background. We've been given twenty-two minutes to grow accustomed to the change; now it's time to start the season for real with next week's "The Jerrick Trap."
The episode also serves as a fun parallel to "Solar Opposites," which chose in its recent season not to replace Roiland's character with a soundalike at all. Instead they had his character get shot in the throat with a dart, which permanently turned his voice into Dan Stevens'. The "Solar Opposites" writers deliberately drew attention to the change, acknowledged it, and then moved on as normal.
"Rick and Morty," meanwhile, has chosen not to address the change in any way. From the standard trailer, to the lack of meta jokes about it, to the fact that Adult Swim has taken so long to even reveal who the new voice actors are, this whole issue's been handled in a way that a casual viewer might never even know something's happened between seasons. Although it must've been hard to find actors who could both match the characters' tone and still deliver on emotional moments, season 7 of "Rick and Morty" has somehow made it feel like no big deal. Many wondered if the show could survive after Roiland's department, but so far it seems like it'll be just fine.
New episodes of "Rick and Morty" premiere every Sunday on Max and Hulu.