‘Rick and Morty’ Drops Surprise New Clip Amid Hiatus

Adult Swim shared a new Rick and Morty clip this weekend, and fans are more stirred up than ever. The cable outlet posted an animated short called “Samurai & Shogun (Rick and Morty).” The six-minute video is breathtaking, but it has fans calling for the next episode in the series louder than ever.

The new Rick and Morty video mimics the style of classic samurai films, with Rick filling the role of the samurai and Morty that of the shogun. In it, a team of Ricks from other dimensions attack through portals, all dressed as ninjas, trying to take back shogun-Morty. However, samurai-Morty is able to fend them off after an intense and bloody battle. Adult Swim added the Japanese idiom “drunken life, dreamy death” to the video.

The new Rick and Morty clip was written and directed by Kaichi Sato, with voice work by Yohei Tadano and Keisuki Chiba. It was executive produced by Maki Terashima-Furuta, produced by Koji Iijima, and made by Studio DEEN. The credits were likely included after Adult Swim‘s last Rick and Morty clip, where fans were left to wonder who had made it.

On Twitter, fans were frustrated to find that the clip had nothing to do with the Season 4, Episode 6 premiere. The official Rick and Morty Twitter account invited commentary with the caption: “Let the canon debates begin,” but fans did not give it much consideration.

“Why [do] we have [these] shorts but not the Season 4 part 2!???” one asked. “I mean I love this but we need the second part!!! A release date?”
“When’s the next episode?” asked another.

“It’s beginning to be real hard to be a fan of this show with these droughts,” added a third.

There has been no concrete news on Rick and Morty Season 4 since December, when the most recent episode aired. At the time, Adult Swim promised the show would be back “some time in 2020.” Fans are beginning to fear that that time is further away than they had hoped.

Still, Rick and Morty fans have something to look forward to this fall — Solar Opposites. The new cartoon comes from Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland and writer Mike McMahan. The animation style and voice cast have a lot in common with the Adult Swim show everyone is waiting desperately for.

Solar Opposites is a Hulu original, with two full seasons already finished. All 16 existing episodes will premiere on Friday, May 8.