Rick & Morty Season 7 features new actors playing the title characters after Adult Swim dropped Justin Roiland following allegations of abuse. The new actors are Ian Cardoni (Rick) and Harry Belden (Morty). They are not giving interviews due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, but series creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder recently discussed the casting process and shared their thoughts overall on replacing Roiland.
Cardoni appeared in Clear History and has performed voice promos for the WWE and Apple TV+. Belden came up through Chicago and attended the Second City Training Center; he previously did voice work for Adult Swim’s Joe Pera Talks With You.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Marder said it was always the hope to cast two people instead of one. Roiland performed both Rick and Morty, and Marder thought it would be “unfair” to ask the same of someone else. For Harmon, he said casting two people instead of one should help the show continue in as seamless a way as possible.
“In a weird way, catering to the idea that there’s been a replacement of a single human being–an auteur–is going to play into the disruption factor. We really want people to keep believing these characters are real,” he said.
Marder listened to “thousands” of auditions over the course of six months. “Rick was a lot harder than I expected; everyone sounded like Macho Man Randy Savage or like a cousin of his. No one sounded exactly like Rick. It was tricky. People had it in splashes but once you bring them back in, they couldn’t do it conversationally, which is what we needed. It was exhaustive,” Marder said.
He added that Cardoni and Belden feel like “they’ve just won the lottery” by landing these coveted roles. “They just brought this show 30 more years,” he said.
Roiland’s charges were dropped in January due to insufficient evidence. Marder said a lot of people who aren’t plugged into Hollywood news don’t know what happened with Roiland, and it was important for him to have Rick & Morty carry on “as if nothing has changed.”
“The goal was always to try to preserve the viewing experience and give them the same show they’ve had every other season,” he said.
Roiland also voiced Mr. Poopybutthole, and actor John Allen will voice this character in Season 7.
Some might think that Rick & Morty’s writers will make jokes about Roiland’s departure and the voice actor change, but Harmon said he doubts that this will happen. “We want to suck it up and play it grown up style and get back to work,” he said.
Rick & Morty Season 7 debuted on October 15.
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