Adult Swim's 'Rick and Morty' renewed for another 70 episodes
'Rick and Morty' fans who were left in a limbo over the non-committal responses creator Dan Harmon gave regarding the status of the series and the possibility of a season 4 can now breathe a sigh of relief.
The much-loved animated science fiction comedy series by Adult Swim has been renewed for a whopping 70 further episodes.
After the final episode of season 3 aired on October 1 last year, there was little in the way of news about how the series would proceed and what the possible timeline for season 4 would be, leaving many to speculate that the show may not be returning at all.
To the fans' delight, those fears were put to ease by Justin Roiland, one of the show's creators and the voice of Rick and Morty, who took to Twitter to post: "More Rick and Morty coming. Looking forward to all the tweets asking where it is! #theydrawingit."
It's quite unprecedented for any show to be renewed for such a hefty number of episodes, especially considering each of the three previous seasons had 11, 10, and 10 episodes respectively, but it goes to show audiences have been captivated by the misadventures of the cynical mad scientist Rick Sanchez and his easily influenced grandson Morty Smith.
This would also explain why both Harmon and Roiland had come out in the wake of season 3's end to claim that negotiations for the next season had 'gotten complicated.' Rumors suggested that Harmon had gotten fed up with some of the fans' behavior, especially after the debacle that was McDonalds' Szechuan sauce promotion, but it's now apparent that the confirmation only took this long because of the lengthy renewal.
Fans cannot be blamed for being apprehensive, however. The gap between season 1 and season 2 was roughly 1.5 years, with 2 and 3 then spaced similarly apart. At its current pace, season 4 will not premiere for some time yet, let alone the other six odd seasons after that one.
It's taken the show 1,913 days to air the first 31 episodes, which is an average of one episode every 61.7 days. At the same pace, it would take 4,319 days for 70 episodes, meaning that the last episode of the series will air in 11.83 years. In 2030.