‘Rick and Morty’ Season 7 Trailer Teases Premiere Date

Adult Swim released a teaser for Rick and Morty Season 7 on Tuesday that may raise more questions than it answers. The video is comprised mostly of clips from Seasons 5 and 6, and is dominated by the song “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” as its soundtrack, with no hint of new voice-over. However, with this teaser came a heads up that Adult Swim will be announcing the season premiere date next week.

Rick and Morty Season 7 is set to premiere sometime in the fall of 2023 on Adult Swim, with an exact date to be announced next week. So far, we haven’t seen any new clips from the season but the newly-cut teaser released on Tuesday still told us a lot about what is coming. It used footage from the Season 5 finale and Season 6 premiere where we learned the truth of Rick’s backstory and his obsessive quest to find the alternate version of himself that killed his wife and daughter. The only voice-over comes at the very end of the teaser – the monologue that Rick delivered at the end of the Season 6 finale.

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Adult Swim’s announcement said “It’s Rick v. Rick Prime” in Season 7, and all this seems to be a very clear indication of where the show is headed. That will be enough to excite many fans who prefer the episodes that are heavy on continuity and character development – especially after Season 6 was mostly episodic. However, it ignores the question most fans are probably focused on – casting.

Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland has voiced both titular characters since the show began – including in the monologue included in this teaser. However, Adult Swim fired Roiland and cut all ties with him back in January when it was revealed that he had been charged with felony domestic battery and false imprisonment. Those charges were dropped due to insufficient evidence, but as far as we know Adult Swim still intends to recast Roiland when the show returns.

At San Diego Comic Con 2023, executive producer Steve Levy spoke at a Rick and Morty panel with producer Suzanne Belk and supervising director Jacob Hair. According to a report by Polygon they confirmed that Rick, Morty and the rest of Roiland’s roles would be recast in Season 7 and that “soundalikes” would take over, with minimal changes noticeable if all went well. Levy said: “We are closing in on the end of our process of the recast,” so it’s surprising that the season will be ready to go so soon after that event. Screenwriter Cody Ziglar tweeted that writing on the season had wrapped way back in August of 2021.

The Rick and Morty “soundalikes” will be juxtaposed against the approach on Solar Opposites, where Roiland was replaced by a completely different voice. Solar Opposites Season 4 dropped this week on Hulu and so far most fans have reacted positively to the change. Hopefully, Rick and Morty can unveil a similarly seamless transition next week.