‘Loki’ Showrunner Reveals How Transition From ‘Rick and Morty’ Came About

Writer Michael Wauldron has taken a portal from Rick and Morty‘s multiverse over to Loki‘s, but he still has a lot to say about the Adult Swim series. Wauldron spoke about how he made that jump in a recent interview with Bleeding Cool, along with some other tidbits about Rick and Morty. He even said that he was in talks with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon to become the showrunner there before he got the job on Disney+‘s Loki.

“Yeah, we had had conversions about that, yes,” Wauldron confirmed. “Mike McMahan was leaving. He created Solar Opposites and Star Trek Lower Decks… So, yeah, Harmon and I had a conversation about me taking over. I’d just come up on the show and everything. That would have been fun in another world. That would have been a blast. But the Loki thing was really, you know, once that came on the radar Dan was very supportive and encouraged me to go after it, once he realized it was live-action.”

“At one point he was like ‘Are you really passionate about the character of Loki? It’s a, [Rick and Morty] is a pretty successful cartoon.’ I was like ‘This is a live-action,’ he was like ‘Oh yeah, go!’” Wauldron added.

As for Season 5, Wauldron did not get a chance to work on it, and he was humble when asked how it might have looked if he had been showrunner. He gave due credit to Harmon, co-creator Justin Roiland and current showrunner Scott Marder.

“Probably not entirely different from, well it’s still Harmon and Roiland’s voice and everything, and I think it’s like part of the job – just let Dan do his thing,” he said. “But I know Scott Marder, who is doing that job over there now, is just doing an amazing job [and] is probably a much more of an efficient, good showrunner for that show than I ever would have been. It probably just wouldn’t have been on time if I had done the job.”

Wauldron is now the creator, head writer and executive producer of Loki — the latest streaming series to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The show has been extremely well-received so far, and it still has a few weeks to go on Disney+ — available here with a free trial for new users.

Meanwhile, Rick and Morty kicked off its fifth season on Sunday with an episode written by Jeff Loveness, who has also made the jump to the MCU since penning that script. He is handling the screenplay for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is expected in theaters in 2023.

For now, you can catch new episodes of Rick and Morty on Sunday nights at 11 p.m. ET on Adult Swim. The show is streaming on Hulu + Live TV here or on AdultSwim.com with a valid cable log-in.

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