Across the Multiverse

The Rick and Morty team on the show's new season, loss, karmic debt and ripping shirts off

- By Jamie Burton

Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's show about a grandfather and grandson who go on interdimensional adventures together has exceeded all expectations since it launched in 2013. What started as an animated cult hit, has developed into an international sensation, with the characters of Rick and Morty crossing over into mainstream media in various guises.

Season six of Rick and Morty launches on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on September 4, returning after what the creators admit was a rough season five.

Ahead of the season premiere, Harmon and Roiland, along with producer Scott Marder and voice actors Sarah Chalke, Chris Parnell and Spencer Grammer, spoke to Newsweek about the loss they suffered during the last season, how Harmon is keeping cool to avoid behind-the-scenes blowups and why the Rick and Morty movie will happen.

"I think season six is better than season five, to talk in cynical fan language," Harmon says. "That's because there was a transitional period during season five, we had to focus on the job itself. I'm referring to the loss of our producer Mike Mendel, who was a father figure to the entire crew."

Former producer of The Simpsons, Mendel died at the age of 54 in 2019. Each upcoming episode of Rick and Morty features an ending title card that reads, "In Loving Memory of Mike Mendel."

"No one plans for the absence of the absolute hub of everything. It was his job to hire and fire, and keep the train moving, then one day he's just gone,” Harmon says. "The very justifiable question the artists were terrified to ask out loud was 'Who's in charge of these knuckleheads, me and Justin, now?' The answer is his longtime protégé Sydney Ryan. She's had to step into her mentor's shoes at absolutely the wrongest time, but she's knocked it out of the park."