Dan Harmon on 'Rick and Morty' Season 8 and the Multiverse Demand

A New Chapter for Rick and Morty

As the eighth season of Rick and Morty prepares to conclude with its upcoming finale, co-creator Dan Harmon is showing a different side compared to previous years. Instead of the usual stress associated with producing new episodes, Harmon seems more relaxed, even finding humor in the situation.

During a video interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harmon was asked about his favorite moments from the current season. His response highlighted a shift in his approach. “I'm really bad at keeping track these days because we're so on schedule that we're ahead of schedule,” he said. “I was told last night that at Comic-Con, we will be doing a table read of the two Beths episode. My response was very sincerely, ‘Maybe I should punch that script up.’ And [executive producer] Steve Levy said, ‘It already aired on television.’ I've become my own Chevy Chase now.”

This new attitude is quite different from what fans have come to expect from Harmon, who has previously spoken openly about his perfectionism and the challenges of knowing when to stop refining an episode. “Definitely very new, very alien,” he admitted. “I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat going, ‘How do I destroy everything? How do I slow it down?’ The answer is, I can't.”

Looking Ahead: Season Nine and Beyond

The show, led by showrunner Scott Marder, is already moving forward with voice recording for season nine, and the writing team has begun work on the following season as well. Harmon expressed excitement about the future, saying, “There's episodes of season 10 that I'm already so excited about, and that's a frustrating thing of being on schedule in animation: ‘Can we fast-forward time so people can get a look at this bad boy?’”

He also mentioned the implications of working so far ahead. “I don't know if that's sad for the listeners to hear. They're like, ‘Why are you three years ahead?’ That means that you're not going to get that amazing [Jeffrey] Epstein episode. We're not going to have hot-topic stuff. We stay timeless.”

Cameos and Creative Vision

One of the standout moments of the season was the appearances by filmmakers James Gunn and Zack Snyder. Harmon shared that Snyder is eager to be a regular on the show. “Zack Snyder wants to be a regular,” he joked. “All of his sequences will be dreams. He'll always exist in a Snyder cut of every episode.”

The appeal of Rick and Morty lies in its serialized storytelling, where viewers explore the multiverse and encounter various versions of the characters. However, some fans noted that season eight leaned more towards episodic adventures rather than expanding the larger narrative.

Harmon acknowledged the challenge of balancing serialization with standalone episodes. “It is tough,” he said. “My part of it is, I'll just always insist on the modular one-off thing. That is harder to pull off and therefore requires more energy. And serialization is a glorious, wonderful thing that happens automatically to a show that people love. So it doesn't really need help.”

The Role of the Writing Team

Harmon also praised the younger and more experienced members of the writing team. “We do have younger, smarter people on the staff whose very job is to remember which Rick is from which dimension. They make great, strong advocates for fantastic and canonical mythical episodes. And so my job can be like, ‘Hey, let's make this ALF’ - just my definition of a really modular show.”

With each season, Rick and Morty continues to evolve while maintaining its unique blend of humor, science fiction, and philosophical undertones. As the show moves forward, fans can expect more creative twists and unexpected surprises, all while staying true to the core elements that have made the series a cultural phenomenon.