‘Rick and Morty’ Teases an Emotional Season 8 Finale—and That New Spin-Off

“Hot Rick,” the season eight finale of Rick and Morty, hits Adult Swim July 27. At the show’s San Diego Comic-Con panel, the cast and creators teased the emotional impact it’ll make—while also sharing a clip packed full of the show’s trademark humor—particularly as it relates to Rick’s arc this season.

Speaking about Rick’s evolution, not just this season but since the show’s 2013 debut, executive producer Dan Harmon was reflective. “Having a character that starts off so edgy and nihilistic, it’s kind of painful sometimes if you get the sense that the character growing or changing is going to be received by some people as the character softening or getting more sterile or sanitized,” he said.

“I would just ask people to consider the alternative, which would be like—things don’t age well, especially edginess from a 52-year-old guy. I can only ever just follow my instincts about, like, would I continue to be a crotchety old man that thinks he’s smarter than everyone in the room? I’m still a nihilist, but I think that the nihilism, when we started the show, it felt like a tentacle of trust going between an audience that was very disillusioned by the kind of artifice of television. And that it made them trust us to start the conversation with, okay, let’s go with your worst fear. What if nothing means anything? … But the show was never trying to say, ‘Let’s all now surrender to meaninglessness.’ It was just saying, ‘I know how you feel.’”

Showrunner and executive producer Scott Marder hinted that “Hot Rick” will offer “a good explainer for why [Rick’s] just the way he is,” with some payoffs coming for intentional story choices made throughout the season.

Sarah Chalke, who plays Beth (and Space Beth), called season eight one of her all-time favorites. “[It’s] so well written and so funny and smart and great … One of the things about the show is that it can just punch you in the gut, and all of a sudden you’re so emotional, and the finale did that. That’s one of my favorite episodes.”

There’s more Rick and Morty to come—as well as the spin-off President Curtis, which was announced at the panel with the help of star Keith David.

“Here’s what you’re supposed to do when you have an amazing show that runs for a million years and makes everyone happy. You make a spin-off,” Harmon—who’s also an exec producer on President Curtis—explained.

For his part, David sounded delighted about the project. “It’s always great being with Rick and Morty, and then to spin off and create another kind of universe where [my character is] less about the bureaucracy of government than going above and below this world to do great things.”

Harmon offered a few nuggets about the characters David’s co-stars Jim Rash and Stephanie Beatriz will be playing. Rash is Special Agent O’Doyle, who is “a half-leprechaun, so he has all your standard leprechaun powers… it’s more a sci-fi version of what a half-leprechaun would be.” Beatriz plays Curtis’ chief of staff, and “she’s got AI implants that try to maximize her neuroplasticity. She’s not a robot, she’s not cyborg, but she’s a medical freak with the ability to learn and unlearn things at her discretion.”

Harmon described President Curtis as “more X-Files than Doctor Who” on “the level of sci-fi that would only be boring to Rick, which allows us to go deeper into it. It is the president’s world. I think Rick feels he’s above that. We are not going to do a bunch of alternate dimension hopping in this show. This show takes place in one universe where the president’s got one planet to run—don’t tell the rest of the countries he thinks that—but he’s protecting it from forces that would otherwise usurp it.”

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