‘The Characters Are the Same Characters’: ‘Rick and Morty’ Producer Promises ‘Soundalikes’ for Justin Roiland’s Replacements
The producers of Rick and Morty are solving their Justin Roiland problem the same way the actual Rick and Morty solve every problem — with clones.
No, Adult Swim doesn’t have tanks full of nude, unconscious Roilands floating in mysterious fluids — it was that sort of thing that got him in trouble in the first place — but they do have a bevy of so-called “soundalike” voice actors ready to step into the two most iconic roles in adult animation. Roiland, of course, was removed from his roles back in January following revelations that he faced domestic violence charges stemming from an alleged incident back in 2020. Those charges were later dropped due to the prosecutors’ determination that they had insufficient evidence to achieve a conviction, but as numerous reports divulged in the fallout of the initial charges, relationships between Roiland and the rest of the production staff of Rick and Morty — especially the one with Dan Harmon — had been severely souring since the show’s third season, and the scandal was supposedly the straw that broke the interdimensional camel’s back.
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Supposedly, Roiland once thought that his distinct voice talents made him unfireable, despite his alleged behind-the-scenes bad behavior, but as The Hollywood Reporter revealed this past Friday, his former bosses are confident in their ability to find a replacement who is indistinguishable from their predecessor. Presumably, their Plan B is to just up and move to a dimension where Roiland isn’t an a-hole.
“We are closing in on the end of our process of the recast,” executive producer Steve Levy told THR. “It’s gonna be great. I am thoroughly impressed with everything that’s going on, including all the work on Season Seven.” Levy clarified that the goal is still to find an actor (or actors) who can perfectly imitate Roiland’s many voice roles on the show, a contrary approach to that of Hulu, who just decided to turn Roiland’s character on Solar Opposites British and get the Downton Abbey guy to replace him.
Though the upcoming seventh season of Rick and Morty does not yet have a premiere date (and likely won’t until Levy and the rest of the producers finally decide to pay their actors and writers), Levy promises that, “The show is as good as it’s ever been,” saying that the casting of “soundalikes” will ensure that “the characters are the same characters — no change.”
Well, there will be one change — hopefully, the new Rick and/or Morty actor(s) won’t allegedly send sexually disturbing DMs to girls who are Summer’s age.
