RICK AND MORTY Co-Creator Dan Harmon Talks About Justin Roiland Drama and Their Friendship Ending
Until now, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon hasn’t talked about or addressed any of the drama surrounding Justin Roiland, who was fired from the series and several other animated shows he was working on. Roiland found himself disgraced after accusations of abuse and harassment exploded on the Internet.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Harmon talked about his legacy in Hollywood and his goals for retirement. At one point in the interview, he’s asked about Rick and Morty's recent ordeal with Roiland, and Harmon said:
"It's all just sad because the goal is for it to be indistinguishable, at the same time, it would be absurd to suddenly decide that the entire foundation of your creative project was, oh, coincidentally, unimportant."
Harmon then specifically started to talk about Roiland, who was accused of using his power in Hollywood to engage with underage and/or vulnerable fans. He explained how the trust has been violated between a lot of individuals:
"The easiest thing for me to say about Justin has been nothing. Easy because he isolated so well and easy because I'm nobody's first choice as a judge of anything or anyone. This is where I'd love to change the subject to myself, to what a piece of crap I've been my whole public life.
"I would feel so safe and comfortable making this about me, but that trick is worthless here and dangerous to others. It's other people's safety and comfort that got damaged while I obsessed over a cartoon's quality. Trust has now been violated between countless people and a show designed to please them. I'm frustrated, ashamed and heartbroken that a lot of hard work, joy and passion can be leveraged to exploit and harm strangers."
Roiland’s abuse case was dismissed, but there’s a lot of damage that was already done. Not just from that, but also from the experiences that people had working with him. Harmon went on to recall the last conversation he had with Roiland, saying:
"He said things that he'd never said before about being unhappy, and I remember saying to him the last time we spoke in person, like, 'I am worried about you, and I don't know what to do about that except to give you all the string and also just say I'm scared that you're not going to come back.' But then this conversation became unprecedentedly confrontational.
"I think that's as far as I get to take the story. At that point, we're no longer both there for it, and it starts to become not only unfair for me to continue but totally uncomfortable because, from there, a friendship goes away, and I still don't fully understand why."
The trailer for Rick and Morty Season 7 recently was released and it seemed to get fans super stoked about the future of the series. The creative team has been trying hard to hype it up, and it’s looking like it will actually live up to that hype.
Rick and Morty Season 7 is currently slated to make its premiere on Adult Swim on Sunday, October 15th at 11:00PM ET/PT.