Dan Harmon Changed the Course of the ‘Rick and Morty’ Universe After Fans Guessed This Plot Twist

When it comes to Rick and Morty plot twists, some secrets are a bit like Schrödinger's cat — they're both canon and not canon until you post about them in the subreddit.

Ever since the show’s very first season, the secrets, Easter eggs and possible hidden plot lines of the Rick and Morty universe have been the focus of outrageous and meticulously crafted fan theories that are only matched in complexity by the show’s actual storylines. Using a near-infinite number of universes within the Central Finite Curve and an equal amount of Rick and Mortys with which to postulate, the Rick and Morty fandom is constantly trying to get ahead of the writers and predict massive, multiverse-altering plot twists before they happen. 

But when they succeed, they can unintentionally change the course of the planned Rick and Morty timeline through an observer effect that series creator Dan Harmon has officially acknowledged.

In May 2021, Harmon sat down with MSNBC’s Ari Melburn, who asked the Rick and Morty don to respond to some popular fan theories, prompting a series of stern non-answers from Harmon — except on the topic of a certain secret identity that fans sniffed out. According to Harmon, he and the Rick and Morty writers planted seeds in the early seasons of Rick and Morty suggesting that Rick and Morty were the same person, but when someone in an online fan forum started to put the pieces together, Harmon abandoned the plot line like it was a Jerry at the Jerry Day Care.

The reveal starts around the 48:30 mark:

“Are Rick and Morty the same person via some sort of time travel?” Melber asked Harmon after the Rick and Morty co-creator refused to comment on so many other fan theories.

Harmon surprisingly responded, “Not since someone guessed that online!” He went on to explain that, while the “Rick is Morty” theory wasn’t yet officially canon when one fan caught on to the idea, it easily could have become a plot line if that investigator kept their big mouth (or laptop) shut. “That’s an example of something that might have ended up being the case when we were thinking about it in Season One.”

“The show’s been on the air quite a long time, and way back then, one of our photon probability wave paths might have involved some hidden secret that Rick and Morty shared a little more than just that locality,“ Harmon said of the fan theory that was nearly a fact before some unnamed sleuth posted it online. 

However, Harmon left the door open on the idea with a sly addendum, telling Melber, “I glibly say, ‘Not anymore.’ I guess it’s my option to still entertain concepts in that area, but that’s an example of why I stay off of the Reddit because I don’t want to see anything that would influence whether I did that or not.”

Now that Harmon has learned to ignore the endless theorizing on r/RickandMorty, fans can feel free to continue posting their explanations for how Mr. Poopybutthole is Evil Jerry’s original Rick with the comfort of knowing that, when the theory fails to come true, it will just be because their idea was stupid and awful.