“Rick and Morty” finally revealed the new voices of the titular characters in Sunday’s Season 7 premiere episode following star and co-creator Justin Roiland’s ousting over sexual misconduct allegations.
Shrouded in mystery until now, the credits announced that Ian Cardoni is the new voice of Rick Sanchez and Harry Belden is the voice of Rick’s grandson Morty.
In contrast to Dan Stevens taking over Roiland’s role on the Hulu animated series “Solar Opposites,” the “Rick and Morty” team opted to cast a wide net to find soundalikes for the beloved characters, which is why they went with these two largely unknown actors.
Cardoni’s credits include a small role in Larry David’s HBO movie “Clear History” and an uncredited role in “Grown Ups,” and he’s done a lot of voiceover work.
Belden’s resume is similarly a bit scant – he was in an episode of “Chicago Med” and an episode of “Joe Pera Talks With You.”
Cardoni and Belden are now the voices of Rick and Morty for the foreseeable future as co-creator Dan Harmon recently revealed he and showrunner Scott Marder are already writing Season 9, with a bevy of episodes still to come.
Roland’s deals with Adult Swim, 20th TV Animation, and Hulu Originals were ended in January after he was charged in Orange County, California with one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment. The charges followed a criminal complaint by an anonymous Jane Doe, who was formerly an intimate partner of Roiland’s.
The case was dismissed in March “as a result of having insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s office said at the time.
Harmon subsequently revealed that he and Roiland had not spoken since 2019 after a rift between the two, and those involved with “Rick and Morty” maintained that Roiland’s involvement in the show since the first couple of seasons had largely consisted of voice work.
Another change for “Rick and Morty” was revealed on Sunday’s episode: Harmon and Roiland’s names no longer appear on the title card for the show as its creators.
