There's One Rick And Morty Guest Star Dan Harmon Would Love To Land [Exclusive]

There have been a lot of amazing guest stars on the sci-fi Adult Swim animated series "Rick and Morty" over the years. We've heard people connected to series co-creator Dan Harmon, like "Community' stars Gillian Jacobs, Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Jim Rash, and John Oliver. (Heck, Keith David is even the President!) We've heard comedians like David Cross and Keegan-Michael Key alongside serious dramatic actors like Susan Sarandon, and even esteemed documentarian Werner Herzog has loaned his voice to the show. There have been some less-than-stellar guest stars, too, like Twitter killer Elon Musk, but for the most part, "Rick and Morty" has gotten some truly quality guest stars to appear on the wacky, occasionally controversial series. But is there anyone the folks behind the show still wish they could land? 

/Film's Ethan Anderton spoke with showrunners Dan Harmon and Scott Marder about the upcoming eighth season of the series and asked them if there were any stars they really wanted to see on "Rick and Morty." It turns out there's one big one for Harmon, and he promises that if they manage to snag this star, he'll go out of his way to be more involved with the episode than usual.

When asked who they would like to get on the show, Marder explained that they were generally able to get A-listers because of the relatively small time commitment it takes to do voice work, but Harmon decided to put his biggest guest star dream out into the universe:

"If this interview is a chance to put out the bat signal on somebody, Sam Rockwell comes to mind. That's a [recording session] I'll show up for. Usually, if we stunt-cast somebody, I'll just make Scott have to direct them, because I don't want to give Susan Sarandon notes. I can't tell a famous person how to act, so my big dreams are also my nightmares. I made some joke with Matthew Broderick about — when he was done, I was directing over a speakerphone, and I was like, 'You got the day off now.' And it was like, pause, and then he was like, 'Yeah, that's great. This is the first time anybody's ever made that joke.' I don't have a wish list because it was a list of people that I'm going to f***ing make an a** of myself in front of."

Rockwell has always been an incredible character actor, bringing a special brand of carefully controlled chaos to everything he does, but he's been on everyone's minds as of late because of his unforgettable appearance on season 3 of "The White Lotus." It's not hard to imagine him absolutely killing it as one of the many bizarre characters that inhabit the wild world of "Rick and Morty," and he and Harmon would probably have a blast cutting up in the recording studio. 

While some creatives might have long wish lists of who they want to work with in the future, it's understandable that Harmon sees the show's high profile guest stars as both a blessing and a curse. There's an old adage about "never meeting your heroes" because ultimately they might disappoint you, and when you're working with your heroes and have the opportunity to embarrass yourself, like Harmon did with Broderick, then it could be even worse. Hey, at least he has Marder to direct the stars that Harmon's too nervous to boss around!

It's hard to imagine giving vocal direction to Sarandon, who portrayed Dr. Wong on the now-infamous "Pickle Rick" episode, or even to someone like Hugh Jackman, who portrayed a version of himself in season 7, because they really are some of the greats and "Rick and Morty" is pretty silly. Hopefully Harmon gets his dream and directs Rockwell in the sound booth, because Rockwell's energy and "Rick and Morty" really is a match made in comedy heaven.

"Rick and Morty" season 8 premieres on Adult Swim on May 25, 2025.