Spoilers follow for Rick and Morty season 5.
The Rick and Morty showrunners have revealed that writing about the multiverse can be quite tricky.
Ahead of season six of the universe-hopping show, Dan Harmon and Scott Marder shared their words of wisdom for whoever is looking to keep track of different timelines in their work.
Unsurprisingly, it's no easy feat, despite the concept of multiple worlds having become a tad more accessible thanks to the MCU — drawing from the Marvel comics — and films such as Everything Everywhere All At Once.
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"It's just super-challenging. Whenever we dip our toe in it, it can easily spin out to become mind-splitting. You're just staring at a story that's got a million Ricks in it. You've got to keep track of all of them so you're not being sloppy. I don't know. Good luck," Marder told Digital Spy and other press at a roundtable.
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"[...] to me, the thing that sucks the most about it is having to remind yourself that when we do do canonical stuff, it's like: well, technically aren't there infinite evil Mortys, then?" Harmon continued.
"My tip to multiverse writers is: abandon ship, baby. Move onto Bitcoin," the show's creator joked.
The animated series has been toying with multiversal mayhem since 2013, recently putting a twist on the supposed centre of their infinite worlds: the Citadel. Spoilers ahead if you haven't watched season 5 of Rick and Morty just yet.
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Harmon has weighed in on the show's writing moving forward, after Evil Morty demolishes the Citadel as part of his master plan.
"But now that Citadel's been destroyed, it certainly doesn't mean we've seen the last of many, many versions of Rick," he said, though he doesn't just want to focus on the multiversal storyline.
"I think the big challenge is in the writer's room, because new writers come in, and they're in that multiversal mode. The first 20 pitches are: 'What if there's a version of Rick…?' I don't want to discourage, but I, myself, I just want to hear, 'What if Rick and Morty are flying in their flying saucer, and X happens?'
"I want to make sure we're doing a hefty amount of those."
Rick and Morty airs on Adult Swim in the US, and on E4 and All 4 in the UK. Season six will premiere on September 4.
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Stefania is a freelance writer specialising in TV and movies. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy.
Her beats are horror films and period dramas, especially if fronted by queer women. She can argue why Scream is the best slasher in four languages (and a half).
After teaching in England and South Korea, David turned to writing in Germany, where he covered everything from superhero movies to the Berlin Film Festival.
In 2019, David moved to London to join Digital Spy, where he could indulge his love of comics, horror and LGBTQ+ storytelling as Deputy TV Editor, and later, as Acting TV Editor.
David has spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and in 2020, he created the Rainbow Crew interview series, which celebrates LGBTQ+ talent on both sides of the camera via video content and longform reads.
Beyond that, David has interviewed all your faves, including Henry Cavill, Pedro Pascal, Olivia Colman, Patrick Stewart, Ncuti Gatwa, Jamie Dornan, Regina King, and more — not to mention countless Drag Race legends.
As a freelance entertainment journalist, David has bylines across a range of publications including Empire Online, Radio Times, INTO, Highsnobiety, Den of Geek, The Digital Fix and Sight & Sound.
