‘Rick and Morty’ season 4: Release date, trailers, plot and everything we know so far

Wubba lubba dub dub!

Since it debuted back in 2013, Rick and Morty has enraptured millions and become a phenomenon of cult-like proportions. With fans now eagerly awaiting the second half of season 4, the big question is this: when’s it coming back?

Information is now coming in thick and fast about the new episodes, so here’s everything we know so far about Rick and Morty season 4.

Latest update

  • The UK release date has been confirmed: Rick and Morty is back on May 7 at 10pm, on E4.
  • A brand new trailer and release date have been released for the next batch of episodes of the second part of Season 4. Five episodes aired at the end of last year, and we’ll be picking up where they left off on May 3.

Does Rick and Morty season 4 have a release date?

It does indeed: it’s been confirmed that the show will be returning on May 3 in the US, and May 7 in the UK.

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News of the release date follows over a year on from a mammoth commission Rick and Morty received from its US network, Adult Swim. 70 episodes – yes, 70 – have been ordered, meaning that Rick and Morty could be on the air for a very, very long time to come.

Co-creator Justin Roiland marked the news of the 70-episode commission in May 2018 with this special drawing of the titular characters.

Roiland told Polygon in June 2018 that fans wouldn’t have to deal with such lengthy gaps between seasons as before. “We‘re super excited that, for the first time ever, we’re locked in, we know what the future is, we have job security,” Roiland said. “Harmon is in great spirits, we have a great writer’s room. We want the episodes to stay good, but we do also want to try to turn them around a little quicker now that we have this big order.”

Is there a trailer for Rick and Morty season 4 yet?

The new trailer for season 4b has finally arrived, and it shows that the pair are up to no good again – as the backing track of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ confirms. Check out the trailer in full below.

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Will Rick and Morty season 4 air on Netflix in the UK?

No. Channel 4 will exclusively broadcast the show’s fourth season, and it remains unclear whether previous seasons of Rick and Morty will remain on the streaming giant when Channel 4’s deal with Adult Swim becomes official.

How many episodes will there be in Rick and Morty season 4?

Dan Harmon initially expressed an interest in possibly making 14 episodes for season 4, but revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that it would in fact be a 10-episode series.

“I would like to think I’ve learned enough from my mistakes in season 3 that we could definitely do 14 now, but then I have to say, ‘Yeah but you’re the guy who says we can do 14 who turned out to be wrong so we’re not listening to you now,'” he told Entertainment Weekly back in September 2017.

“The nice healthy way to approach this is I want to prove it with the first 10 of season four — prove it to ourselves, to production, to the network — that it’s so easy that we’ll earn additional episodes.”

The first five aired in late 2019 – the second half, due for release in May, is being dubbed “The Other Five”.

Any word on possible guest stars?

Rick and Morty season 3 featured the likes of Peter Serafinowicz, Danny Trejo and Joel McHale – and there have now been a number of stars confirmed to pop up in season 4.

“We’ve got Paul Giamatti,” Justin Roiland told Entertainment Weekly. “That’s a hot scoop. We got Sam Neil. Taika Waititi does a voice. Kathleen Turner.”

Taika Waititi
Taika Waititi

In July 2018, Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd expressed an interest in lending his voice to the show. Many fans will know that Rick and Morty is inspired by Lloyd’s character, Doc Brown, and Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly from the 1985 sci-fi film.

Speaking to the Phoenix New Times about possibly starring in the new season, Lloyd said: “I’d like to, of course. I think it’s really fun. I don’t follow it closely, but I’ve seen a few episodes and I gotta tell you, I think it’s a lot of fun. I know it’s some kind of parody of Doc and Marty.”

When asked if he would accept the role of Rick’s father, Lloyd replied: “That’d be fun.”

Other guest stars include Elon Musk (as Elon Tusk, the CEO of Tuskla), Justin Theroux, Matthew Broderick and Keegan-Michael Key in cameo roles.

Will Kanye West be in season 4?

It seems like, after rumours that Kanye West could be handed over his own episode of Rick and Morty in season 4, that the offer is still on the table, but won’t be featuring in this season.

“We’re trying to schedule something. It’s not going to be for this batch coming up,” Roiland confirmed to Entertainment Weekly in July 2019. “But we love the idea of doing something with him. It’s just a discussion of what exactly that is, and then sitting down and talking with him. He had to reschedule, and then we had to reschedule. We need to sit down and chat about it. But it’s a very sincere and legitimate offer when we threw that out.”

Kanye expressed his love for the Adult Swim show back in May 2018 as news broke about Rick and Morty being renewed for season 4. “This is the greatest news. This is my favourite show. I’ve seen every episode at least 5 times each,” he tweeted at the time. He even invited co-creator Justin Roiland to hang out.

Since then, Harmon and Roiland have invited Kanye to helm his very own episode of Rick and Morty. “I’m giving him an episode, I’m making it official,” Harmon told The Blast in May 2019. “We have 70 [episodes], he can have one — Kanye, you can have an episode.” Calling Kanye a “kindred spirit,” Harmon’s co-creator Roiland then added, “We fucking love Kanye.”

“Come hang out, write a Rick and Morty episode with us. It’ll be the Kanye episode.”

What about old characters returning for Rick and Morty season 4?

We don’t know for certain about any returning characters yet – but we do know that one fan favourite, Butter Bot, won’t be returning. In a 2018 advert that the producers of Rick and Morty created for Old Spice, we saw the beloved robot being brutally murdered as he’s eaten by a massive anthropomorphic can of Old Spice.

One character that fans of Rick and Morty would love to see again is Pickle Rick. Adult Swim have capitalised on the huge popularity of Rick’s pickle experiment by releasing audio outtakes of Roiland recording one scene from that episode – check it out above.

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