So I guess that's it for Rick and Morty

 They'll never make it to 100 seasons

One upon a time, a man on the TV box made a promise to me. He said: "Rick and Morty 10 seasons- Rick and Morty a Hundred seasons!" Unfortunately that man turned out to be Justin Roiland, and thus his promises were but dust in the swirling vortex that is his self destructive life tendencies. I don't think anyone is actually surprised that a show with the stylings and particular spirit of Rick of Morty would have itself a couple of unhinged creators; but whereas so far we only know Dan Harmon to be weird enough to introduce his personal sex doll to his girlfriend, Justin's problems run far deeper and ended up scarring a lot more people than just Dan Harmon's girlfriend. Which I guess is why it's an inevitability, no matter how much it sucks, that Rick and Morty is end- what do you mean they're continuing? They fired Justin, how do they expect to- oh no... OH NO!

So that's right, Justin Roiland has faced the axe out of his perfect casted role for the revealed ongoing case of felony domestic abuse and false imprisonment, which is still currently undecided in the courtroom. But that case itself is only the most public face of his controversy, for at the same time there came out a slew of embarrassing flirtatious texts he'd sent out to different woman he was working with, and fans of the show, all of which carry the cringe of the ancients within their bodies. Whenever your entire off-screen life is blasted over the Internet like that it's obvious that it's all over for you, so from that point forward it was only a matter of time before Adult Swim gave Justin the ultimatum. His 'firing' very well might have been amicable and mutual, but Rick and Morty is such a profitable franchise for the company that there was no way that could seek solidarity or accept some sort of public apology. He was gone from the moment he clicked the 'send message' button.

At the same time his other key venture, the slowly rising Squanch Games which has just put out it's single biggest project in 'High on Life', had Justin quit from their ranks in the wake of all of this. To put this all into perspective, Justin Roiland was one of the co-creators of Rick and Morty and the founder of Squanch Games. He was a major writer in Rick and Morty's first few seasons, and he has voiced the title characters throughout all that time, he was also often a major voice talent in his company's video games voicing several characters here and there in his iconic silly voices. He's not the kind of rung you can just pull out of the Jenga Tower without the structure feeling it- he's an integral part of both of these huge ventures, maybe even a necessary part; and though his removal doesn't carry the same weight of rank injustice as Henry Cavill's many career slap downs, it might carry the same seismic scar on what he leaves behind.

For one, I think we can all probably deduce that Rick and Morty is likely going to shrivel up and be cancelled in it's next few seasons. Even though the team very much want to continue on and will absolutely attempt to replace Justin's performance and contribution, there was so much of him within that show it's difficult to imagine production without him. Dan Harmon seems to still be around as far as I know, but you only have to look at the similarities with Squanch Games style of writing and performances to see the imprint of Justin's presence on Rick and Morty. That is the style that fans fell in love with back when Rick and Morty was promoted from a sketch into a regular show, and that is the style which I can't really imagine being replicated regardless of how decent the replacement staff and surviving writers striving to make up the difference.

We've already reached and passed the point where Rick and Morty settled so deeply into the public consciousness that it lost that cutting edge uniqueness and swerved into becoming trite and/or meandering. The show seemed to pain over itself assuring the viewers that taking things too seriously was stupid, whilst at the same time weaving threads that only the dedicated would be bothered to care about- and audiences were just getting tired of the schtick. Some believe that it was Justin's style of humour they were getting tired with, so maybe the clock was ticking for Rick and Morty anyway before all of this happened. But recent events certainly helped speed the doomsday clock up to midnight, unless the impossible happens and the irreplaceable is replaced.

Which had me, and therefore my snooping and ever-curious Brother, wondering who exactly the team were going to reach out to in order to replace their main actors. The writing cast is beyond me, I'm not engrained in the TV writing world enough to be able to sit here and name writers and their talents, but the voice talent- that's worth considering. Because this isn't going to just be a simple process. Rick and Morty are the leads who's personalities dictate the direction of the show, they have very similar stilted delivery methods and complimentary attitudes- whoever picks up that torch would have to be some sort of renaissance man. Thus I assumed it would have to be Maya Rudolph, what with how deftly she's stepped up to replace the M&M Mascots, replacing R&M should be second nature! My Brother, however, better favours a few other actors. Chloe Cherry, from her work in Euphoria as... I never watched the show, don't ask me. Danny Devito, because he has the funny voice with the funny words. And Bob Odenkirk, because when all else fails- you Better Call Sal.

But to be serious, my suggestion to try and play into this turn of events would be thus: play into the multiverse angle and have us follow totally different Ricks and Morty's who behave and sound different to the one's we know, so as to not leave the audience feeling like you're replacing the history that they love. I know that some of the point of the multiversal Ricks was to establish that his and Morty's duo are together in an infinite number of universes and in all of those universes Rick still treats Morty as subhuman crap, but liberties are going to be taken somewhere, so I vote they be taken here. This way the team can hire a different actor to portray the derivative duo each season whilst trying to make each individual style of season feel and sound different. A challenge to be sure, but an inviting one!

At the end of the day there is a lesson in all this, and I think that lesson is never have anything to hide because the public will dig it up and strangle you with it one day. Squanch Games even tried to go the distance of paying off one of Justin's former accusers, only for that payoff to become public making the entire studio look like complicit worms. There really is no recourse except to just be utterly beyond reproach in your past, present and future. And I hope that Adult Swim are scrambling to pick up what's going to be their next lifeline show when- I mean if, this new series of Rick and Morty after 7 falls flat, because we know how investors get once you hit a roll... keep the chart line pointed upwards and you're sunshines and rainbows, angle the other direction and the puppies turn into ravenous hell hounds.