On Thursday afternoon, October 17th 2024, the first proper day of New York Comic Con, hundreds if not over a thousand Rick and Morty fans gathered together in the main stage at the Javits Center for the Rick and Morty season 8 panel. The panel featured show creator, Dan Harmon, executive producer and showrunner, Scott Marder, and the principal voice cast; Ian Cardoni (Rick Sanchez), Harry Belden (Morty Smith), Spencer Grammar (Summer Smith), Sarah Chalke (Beth Smith), and Chris Parnell (Jerry Smith). While the room wasn’t quite filled up to capacity – I think at least a quarter up to a third of the seats remained unfilled by the time the panel started – the crowd that gathered were nonetheless enthusiastic and passionate, some cosplaying their favorite characters of the series and reciting their favorite memes and lines while waiting in line. These fans greeted the panelists to great cheers and applause as they came up on stage to begin the panel, moderated by Peri Nemiroff from Collider. Dan jokes how this reception was his favorite part of his job, and that everyone should become an executive producer and feel as affirmed in what they do.
Ian and Harry were asked how they felt after recording their first season taking over the roles of Rick and Morty respectively from disgraced show creator Justin Roiland. Both Ian and Harry started out as fans of the show, so they were happy that fans have received their inclusion in it so warmly. In fact, Harry said that “10s” of people have told him that Rick and Morty is the only show their family sits down and watches together. Someone from the audience yells out to Ian, “I fucking love you Rick!” to concurring sentiments of applause and cheers, validating that Ian has really been accepted and is loved as the new voice of Rick Sanchez by most Rick & Morty fans. Though later on in the panel, Dan joked that all the people who chanted that they love the cast were just an automated voice machine.
Spencer reflected on how she first met Ian and Harry at a Christmas party, and was floored by their Rick and Morty impressions. She feels the show is lucky to have them. They’ve since become best friends and even play Magic the Gathering together. Chris was skeptical Ian and Harry could pull the voices off, but was convinced after hearing them. Dan jokes it’s handy they found Ian, since he’s both an alcoholic and only 24 years old.
On what fans could look forward to in the next season of Rick and Morty and beyond, Scott revealed that they are almost done writing the first pass of season 10. Spencer is excited for season 8’s Summer episode, as it shows a different side of her than we’ve seen before. There is also a Jerry-focused episode, and an uncommon holiday episode that isn’t usually featured in shows. Later, Dan joked about there being an upcoming episode where Rick warns Morty not to venture into a vault of spoilers, which led to a live improv bit with Harry and Ian playing out the scene that amused the audience.
Regarding their favorite parts of the season from an actor’s perspective, Ian noted he is excited for some of the new multiverse versions of Rick that show up in the new season. Sarah similarly says that she enjoyed playing Space Beth and another new version of Beth in the season. Harry joked that he’s excited that this season has an episode with both Rick and Morty together. All the cast felt that the new season had moments that challenged them as voice actors. Sarah in particular says she experimented with finding the voice for the new Beth she’s portraying in the season, and enjoyed figuring it out as she enjoyed finding Night Beth’s voice back in season 6. Chris noted that while there’s a lot of yelling in the show, he enjoys recording in person rather than over Zoom since he loves performing alongside the cast. During the audience Q&A, Sarah noted that she still records from Canada over Zoom, while everyone else records in person. But she also loves being able to go record in the booth. She noted there was a lot of emotional stuff involving Beth in this last season that made her want to cry while performing in the booth.
Around this point, they took a break from the Q&A to show a new animatic from the upcoming season. The scene depicts Rick and Morty raiding a seemingly abandoned ship of an alien species that ruined their own planet and are now sleeping in cryopods. While they argue about whether they should steal from these aliens or not, Morty accidentally sets off an alarm that starts to wake the aliens up and breaks a cryopod killing one of the aliens, leading to them disguising themselves as members of the alien crew.
Returning to what they enjoyed most about the upcoming season, Scott noted how he enjoyed that Rick and Morty’s relationship is becoming more like buddies, like Cheech and Chong. He appreciates that this season returns to the more classic style of Rick and Morty standalone adventures. When mapping out the season, they try to look at it from a distance to make sure they have focus on each character and a balance of stories and tones. He jokes that internally they see Rick and Morty naked a lot because of how many situations they get nude or need a costume change.
On what challenges them most as voice actors, Ian demonstrates a live Rick burp, joking that it’s the most truthful thing inside of him. Harry says they were able to time their time recording season 8 compared to season 7, which was fast and furious. However, any change in his performance style was unconscious. For Sarah, the person who challenges Beth the most is Beth, but there’s a mother-daughter story in the season where Summer also challenges Beth. Chris jokes there’s also a point in the season where Jerry challenges Jerry.
Regarding what their favorite experiences have been in making this season of Rick and Morty, Ian said the most joyous moments while recording the new season was whenever Scott stops yelling at them. Chris and Harry replied that it’s doing this very panel at NYCC. Dan recounts how when they all hung out with his friend from General Hospital at SDCC, Ian and Harry helped him practice his lines while in-character as Rick and Morty, which was the most Dan has laughed in a long time. Spencer mused how she’s been on the show since the pilot in 2011, and it’s been a joy to be a part of. Sarah reflected on how at their first NYCC panel, there was barely anyone in attendance, but the crowds have kept growing year after year, and so have the cosplays. Later, Dan joked that if the back row of the NYCC panel is empty next year he’ll knew they should wrap up Rick and Morty by season 20.
Regarding the future of Rick and Morty, Dan joked that his big announcement was akin to the reveal of Robert Downy Jr at Marvel’s SDCC panel earlier that year. It was indeed a big announcement; they officially revealed that the series has been renewed for seasons 11 and 12, the first new pick-ups for the series since the last seven-season, 70-episode order made back after the debut of season 3 in 2017. Chris wondered why they’ve only been ordered for two more seasons, but Dan feels that Adult Swim is just doing it piecemeal as opposed to making giant orders all at once. Dan joked that when they reach their 365th episode, Morty will have been 14 for a full year, and they’ll have to make 10 times as many episodes as that for the “Rick and Morty 100 years” meme to actually come true. As for the remaining seasons from the previous order, Scott said that seasons 8, 9, and 10 are incredible. Season 8 is starting to come in color, season 9 is in early stages, and season 10 is currently being scripted. Dan joked that they’ve had to constantly pull accidents parallels to real mass shootings out of the show. He dared fans to vote for gun-control legislation if we don’t like how real-life tragedies limit the kind of violence they can get away with in the series. Later, Dan credited Heather Ann Cambell for coming up with good ideas about running everyday things for people, like with the people whose intestines became pasta episode from the last season.
The panel concluded by opening up to an audience Q&A, which as you might expect was a mixed bag of thoughtful, redundant, and painfully inane questions. Like, whether Jerry would get into NFTs and other silly nonsense like that. For what it’s worth, Chris doesn’t think Jerry would go too crazy about NFTs. He would have a modest collection and not spend too much on them, and be even-handed about it.
However, there were some notable nuggets of information about the show that came out through the cast’s responses to them. For example, will Pickle Rick return? Not in the foreseeable future, for better or worse, though Scott notes he was unofficially in an early cut of the Watcher episode from the previous season. Ian joked that they should have Rick turn into another vegetable, like a Carrot Rick. Ian enjoys how the multiverse provides a sandbox for a lot of different stories they can explore. A character who will be making a return is Keith David’s President character, who will feature prominently in the next season. What won’t be happening anytime soon is a crossover between Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites, since Dan has nothing to do with that show. Although, he could possibly see a crossover between Rick and Morty and Krapopolis happening someday, some way, somehow.
Dan noted that they don’t have an idea of how they’ll wrap up Rick and Morty, and that they don’t have any ideas they’re holding onto. Back when he worked on Community, Dan started discovering that Reddit is a content farm where fans will figure out your storylines and character arcs if you make your show too character-driven, so he doesn’t try to plan ahead too much or too far in advance anymore. He also regrets the comments and podcast he made about Community season 4, when he was replaced as showrunner, recognizing it was immature of him. Dan now has a renewed gratitude and perspective to be running a show and have job considering the dire state of the tv industry, though it gives him a bit of survivor’s guilt. Even so, he feels that running a show doesn’t bring happiness so much as comfort, since he’s not worried about going broke. Hopefully, with Rick and Morty renewed again, both Harmon and the talented cast and crew working on the show won’t have to worry about that forever and forever, a hundred years.
I’m doing a panel for season 8 at #NYCC24, Morty! I’m NYCC Rick!! pic.twitter.com/IbmJB5RGUE
— LumRanmaYasha (@LumRanmaYasha) October 17, 2024
