After a year and a half, “Rick and Morty” is finally coming back. Season 8 of the Adult Swim hit will premiere on May 25 at 11 p.m. ET/PT.
The season will premiere in over 170 countries in 42 languages. New episodes will be available for purchase from digital retailers the day after they premiere on Adult Swim in the United States. The season will then be available to stream on Sept. 1.
The network even released a teaser for this upcoming season. After turning into literal turkeys for Thanksgiving and messing with both intergalactic snakes and human theme parks for Christmas, “Rick and Morty” will be tackling Easter. The clip shows the duo traveling to an elaborate Easter-themed planet.
“Why would aliens care about a holiday we don’t even care about?” Morty (Harry Belden) asks. Great question. Check out the teaser below:
Fittingly, Adult Swim dropped the premiere date as part of its annual April Fool’s Day broadcast special. This time around, the network debuted “Portal People,” a 22-minute anthology special from the totally-real and definitely-not-invented-for-this-day “Rick and Morty Playhouse Players.” Have you ever wanted to see real people in huge costumes act out your favorite “Rick and Morty” moments with the budget of a well-funded local theater? Not really? Well, here you go.
“We hope you enjoyed our theater interpretations of ‘Rick and Morty,’ especially if you are well-off/impulsive and now want to back a Broadway version of the show,” Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen said in a statement to press. “For the rest of you, we’re glad you now know when Season 8 is starting so you have time to stretch and get loose because the team has yet again made a totally great season of television.”
This is far from the first time Adult Swim’s April Fool’s Day prank has involved “Rick and Morty.” Season 3 famously aired its first episode unannounced on the holiday in 2017 after roughly two years of silence from the show. The following year the network then aired a parody of Dan Harmon’s sci-fi show titled “Bushworld Adventures.” That short from Michael Cusack led to an ongoing partnership with the creator of “YOLO” and “Smiling Friends.” Later in 2020, Adult Swim aired a short from Studio Deen that would later become the groundwork for “Rick and Morty: The Anime” during its Post Malone-hosted event. The show even made an appearance in 2021 as part of the one-night-only Adult Swim Junior.
“Rick and Morty” stars Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden, Sarah Chalke, Chris Parnell. and Spencer Grammer. The animated comedy is executive produced by Dan Harmon and Scott Marder, who also serves as showrunner.
During its third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons, “Rick and Morty” ranked as the No. 1 comedy across all of cable. The series has received two Emmys for Outstanding Animated Program so far.
