Predominantly revolving around the removal of co-creator and lead voice actor Justin Roiland and his subsequent recasting, there was a fair amount of discourse swirling around the release of Rick & Morty Season 7. People chose their side, and some viewers took to online review aggregators to voice their dislike of the direction. When the critical reviews began to filter through, the return was more favorable at 73 out of 100 on Metacritic compared to 3.5 out of 10.0 from audiences, but this reception was the result of the first couple of episodes.
Now, with ten more episodes in the books, it looks as though Rick & Morty’s most contentious start has finished incredibly well. The voices may be different, sitting between decent imitations and being a bit uncanny, but the storylines continued, hitting the mark for both episodic outings and touching back to the serialized elements. Some of the more scathing early reviews have even been rewritten in response to how the series built up over its ten-episode run. So, after a rocky start, there’s now a renewed interest in the future of the series.
Quality episodes to quiet the noise
In place of Roiland as the titular characters came in new voice actors Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden, which was the main stumbling block for many returning after Season 6. They are both very close to the mark, but in the first episode, the slight differences can be a bit jarring. As the season continues, they seem to blend into the roles a bit better, particularly when it comes to Rick Sanchez. Still, Roiland wasn’t just a voice actor; he was one of the creatives behind the scenes.
The remaining creatives, such as co-creator Dan Harmon, seemed keen to establish that the show was still on track by opening with a collection of Rick’s classic team members and then going big on Jerry lacking intelligence by swapping the minds of Rick and Jerry. It’s with these two episodes going out to reviewers that some of the feedback came back negative or tepid. This stance did begin to change, though.
As the season progressed, an incredibly satisfying conclusion to one of the show’s longest-running plots came to an end, and it dipped back into referencing one of the great futuristic movies by bringing in the Kuato dynamic for the seventh episode. The final two episodes could even rival that of the Rick Prime episode, going into a loop of infinite power and reincarnation from Valhalla, and then delving into the Fear Hole, complete with a time-skipping montage akin to some of the best Rick & Morty episodes.
Full steam ahead for Rick & Morty
It seems fair to say that the opening for Season 7 was the most daunting for Rick & Morty’s run to date, but the show came out on the other side very well. As it turns out, the team has already written halfway through Season 9 with a full plan for the end of Season 10 already down, too. Given the show’s prominence and popularity, it’d seem like the ideal time to continue to expand its presence beyond TV shows. Already, there’s a lot of additional Rick & Morty stuff out there.
Gaming, given the subject of the series, has long been a natural home, but the amount of content isn’t exactly vast. There’s Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality for VR headsets and the free mobile app game Pocket Mortys, but they came out in 2017 and 2016, respectively. More recently released, in 2020, are the slot games Wubba Lubba Dub Dub!! and Rick & Morty Megaways! Both appear at some of the top-rated sites for casino bonuses, in a list of more than 200 platforms. Deposit-match bonuses and some no-deposit bonuses from the likes of BetMGM and LeoVegas can be used on these popular slots.
So, the brand has quite a hefty presence even as far as leading bonus casinos, but new games would be welcomed. Perhaps the main space that Rick & Morty continues to keep up an active presence is comics. Rick and Morty Meeseeks P.I. started in November 2023, and in February 2024, Finals Week will kick off an interconnected one-shot run.
Rick & Morty has successfully navigated some stormy waters and should now seek to capitalize on this high with even more zany sci-fi creations for fans to enjoy.
