Rick And Morty's Scott Marder Says Evil Morty's Storyline Created Major Challenges For Season 6
For most episodes, "Rick and Morty" has a fairly episodic structure, with most storylines being self-contained within the episode. However, the show has also been known to have big plot twists and changes that affect the trajectory of the series, especially during the show's season premieres and finales.
One big change for the series was the finale to "Rick and Morty" Season 5, in which we see the return of Evil Morty (Justin Roiland, but not for much longer), a Morty from a different dimension who managed to destroy the Central Finite Curve in which Ricks are always considered "superior" to Mortys, escaping out into an unknown dimension and leaving our Rick and Morty (Roiland) stranded in space.
It was a surprising and emotional finale, but one that felt quickly brushed aside and ignored for much of the following Season 6. Here's what those who worked on both seasons have to say about how Season 5's finale created challenges for the following season.
Rick and Morty's writers made multiple versions of the Season 6 premiere
In an interview with Screen Rant, series co-creator Dan Harmon and producer Scott Marder talked about Season 6 and how the show went about following up on the explosive finale of the previous season.
"When you see a cliffhanger like the end of season 5, it's kind of like buying on a credit card," Harmon told Screen Rant. "That means when we were at the end of season 5, we were kind of like, 'How do you end this season?' and sometimes the answer is, 'Well, we can exchange debt for credit.'"
Marder also commented on the pressure of following up on such a big finale, saying that it was an exciting challenge, but a huge challenge nonetheless. The team went through multiple different versions of the Season 6 premiere before they finally settled on what would become "Solaricks."
The episode sees Rick and Morty rescued almost immediately from Space Beth (Sarah Chalke), but it deals with the aftermath of the previous episode's events by having Rick's portal gun remain broken, which remains to be the case for half the season. With Evil Morty still somewhere in an alternate dimension outside the Central Finite Curve, it's also safe to say that we haven't seen the last of the aftermath of Season 5's finale.
"But, yeah, it was a lot of work, but I'm really grateful for the one that we ultimately found and landed for you guys, because it feels like it does everything," Marder said.