'Rick and Morty' Is Preparing a '10-Season Saga'

Rick and Morty has always sought a balance between over-arching plots and self-contained adventures, but by the end it will play like one big "10-season saga," according to showrunner Scott Marder. In a new interview with our sister site ComicBook.com, Marder said that the plot will continue to thicken in future seasons. He didn't want to spoil what's coming, except to say that it would be grand in scale.

"I can't tease a lot. I can tell you we're in the middle of writing season nine," Marder said. "I can tell you that we've already got a couple ideas for Season 10 that are already kind of pinned. There is a full plan for a full 10 season saga. So if people are on board with what we've been doing the past couple seasons, we're intending to give them more of that. But there are certainly arcs and cool things and big surprises in store."

Rick and Morty just wrapped up Season 7 on Sunday, so fans will be glad to hear that work on the show is so far ahead. Adult Swim gave the show a massive 70-episode order back in 2018, ensuring the series would continue through Season 10. That also means the writers, voice actors and animators can work continuously rather than stopping between seasons to renegotiate contracts. Executive producer Steve Levy previously mentioned that writing on Season 8 was finished, and now we know that work on Season 9 has begun as well.

Marder's promise of a "saga" will be exciting news for fans who love the series' ongoing plotlines and returning villains. Rick and Morty has always featured callbacks, and its first long-term villain was introduced in Season 1 with "Evil Morty." However, at times the show has seemed to shy away from continuity in preference of self-contained episodes and irreverent humor. The show itself has made this point at times – most notably in Season 4, Episode 6, when the show casually mocked its own "canon" on the "Story Train."

However, in the seasons since then, the show has clearly ramped up its ongoing stories with the hunt for Rick Prime and his death in Season 7, Episode 5 – not to mention the ominous return of Evil Morty. Since then, co-creator Dan Harmon has praised Marder and the other writers for their work on this storyline, saying that he felt unqualified for such work considering his background in sitcoms. In an interview with Variety, Harmon and Marder hinted at where the story would go from here now that Rick Prime is dead.

"It's something I love about this show," Marder said. "That episode would have been a series finale on a lot of shows, and I liked that it was just an episode in the middle of our seasons. We move at a really crazy pace."

"I think there's still a conclusion to a story here," Harmon said, "because the narcissist will tell you that destroying yourself, it doesn't solve a problem."

Rick and Morty Season 7 is available now on the Adult Swim app or on PVOD stores. It will hit Max and Hulu on Jan. 22, 2024. Previous seasons are streaming now on Max and Hulu.