Rick and Morty’s Dan Harmon and Scott Marder Tease Season 8—and Evil Morty’s Return

Season seven of Rick and Morty made it clear: Rick Prime, long the nemesis of the show’s main Rick, won’t be around anymore. Instead, his absence is something Rick will have to reckon with. But another of the show’s big villains, Evil Morty, has plenty of runway to return—something the show is already teasing.

Speaking to Variety in an interview tied to news that season seven has seen an uptick in viewership over season six since arriving on Max, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder discussed the season seven finale as well as the season’s overall balance of “canon” versus “adventure of the week” content. That’s something they’ll be aiming for in season eight, which will hit Adult Swim in 2025.

“Eight will have a lot of similar flow and vibes to six and seven, which is like a cool balance of silly and one-up canonical stuff,” Marder told the trade. “That’s the stuff I want as a fan. And that’s the stuff that Harmon and I work on all jammed together. I’m really proud of these last couple of seasons; they’re sort of the perfect blend of what I look for as a fan.”

Since probably the biggest canon element Rick and Morty has going at the moment is Evil Morty—a super-smart, super-malevolent version of the show’s main Morty character—Marder addressed him specifically, noting, “We can expect to see him in the future. We certainly have plans and grand designs with him, for sure.”

Of course, there were no more details given as to what those plans might be, but going by io9’s December 2023 interview with Harry Belden—the new voice of Morty in season seven, who joined the show alongside Ian Baldoni as the new voice of Rick—it will be as fun for the cast and crew as it is for fans whenever Evil Morty returns. “I loved playing Evil Morty because he’s been one of my favorite characters on the show,” Belden said. As for his performance, “For me it was about bringing that mentality of ‘I’m better than you.’ Cold, calculating, always in control—[it’s] Rick’s version of Morty, taken to an extreme. So I just had an absolute blast playing Evil Morty.”

You can stream Rick and Morty seasons 1-7 on Max.

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