Rick and Mortyco-creatorDan Harmonand showrunner Scott Marder opened up about casting its new voice stars, replacing Justin Roiland with Ian Cardoni (voicing Rick) and Harry Belden (voicing Morty). Sunday’s premiere of season seven ofRick and Mortywas the show’s first episode without Roiland, who had previously voiced both title characters (among others) for the Adult Swim animation. Roiland was fired from the hit show after allegations of domestic violence came to light along with reports of years worth of questionable behavior from theRick and Mortyco-creator. The domestic violence charges were later dismissed due to insufficient evidence and Roiland denied other claims of misconduct which included sexual harassment and sexual assault.
While searching for a new Rick and Morty, Marder (who led the casting search) wanted to make the transition from one voice actor to another as smooth as possible for viewers. While chatting about the process withTHR, Marder admitted that he wanted to find different actors for each role, saying:
“For sheer quality of life, it’d be easier for the amount of work required for both characters. We watched it over the years wear down on Roiland’s voice. It felt unfair to do that to someone.”
Harmon added:
“In retrospect, it’s also smart because we want the fan experience to continue with as little disruption 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.”
Marder went on to discuss the search process saying:
“We heard thousands. It went on for six months. It was really wide. It almost went so wide that we debated doing a global hotline though we knew it would wind up being a prank line. We felt we needed to go that far and wide. It was harder than we thought. I thought it’d have been easier.”
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Finding the Right Person To Play Rick Was a Lot Harder Than Expected
The showrunner continued, revealing how difficult it was to cast Rick Sanchez.
“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.”
He later noted that Ian Cardoni was one of the first auditions he heard,with both standing out from the rest.
“Ian was one of the first people I heard when the search began; he was in first wave: ‘Mark that guy, he’s got major flashes of Rick,’ which was awesome. We found Harry a lot later. They just stood out.”
The showrunner went on to say:
“We brought those guys back in with a wave of people a ton of times and made them go through a bunch of sides and do all scenes in a way we couldn’t even do normally just to see what their stamina was and if they could stay in voice. We put them through a pretty rigorous process.”
The pair then revealed the voice actors' reactions to earning the parts, with Marder stating, “They feel like they just won the lottery. They just brought this show 30 more years. We just got these eager, young guys who are so excited to attack every episode.” The showrunner added, “They have access to all the cuts we have access to. So when I jump in to record new stuff with them, these guys are diligent and have watched things through and they’re asking to record pickups for things that aren’t on our list.”
As for any noticeable changes to theRick and Mortycharacters, Marder notedthat those might come in time. He said:
“The more they become the character, the more I can see the flourishes they add and the ad libs they throw in. That wasn’t a luxury they had at the starting gate. The more comfortable they get with these characters, they may add some fun color that we might use.”
Marder finished by expressing his excitement over new things to come:
“I’m so excited fans get to see it this year. This show has weathered so much.” He added, “I’m just grateful we found these guys and that they sound the same and that everyone can enjoy what we know, what we’ve had for a while, which is maybe one of our best seasons.”
The seventh season ofRick and Mortypremiered on October 15.
