Rick and Morty season 3: release date, trailer, clips, episode titles - everything we know so far

Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland's Adult Swim show finally returns!

It’s been a long time - over a year-and-a-half - since the season two of Rick and Morty aired.

News regarding the third season has been quite turbulent. On April Fool’s Day earlier this year, the first episode was suddenly released to rave reviews from critics, spawning another Internet dominating meme (McDonald's Szechuan, anyone?).

After that surprise, months passed with no new information, an exact release date not being revealed for some time.

However, following a live-stream, the world was graced with a new trailer and an actual release date. So, let’s look into everything we know so far about season three of Rick and Morty.

Release date and how to watch

After a lengthy wait, Adult Swim confirmed new episodes of Rick and Morty would start airing from the 30 July at 11.30 pm ET onwards.

Previously, the only official acknowledgment of when to expect new episodes was ‘this summer’, as poster by the show's Twitter account. Episodes will be broadcast on Adult Swim in the US.

Netflix (which carries seasons 1 and 2) has confirmed to The Independent that the premiere, 'The Rickshank Rickdemption', will be available on 30 July and the show will be added to the streaming service every Sunday until it concludes on 8 October.

It unfortunately appears the Netflix uploads will be a week behind Adult Swim's broadcast of the episodes, however.

Update: It appears the first episode will be live streamed for US viewers on adultswim.com. Savvy fans outside of the US may fire up their VPNs.

What have we seen so far?

As mentioned above, the first episode — titled 'The Rickshank Redemption' — has been released, our review available to read here.

Along with the release date, we also received an official trailer featuring more snippets from the upcoming season, soundtracked by Dizzee Rascal's 'Bonkers'.

We’ve also been treated to a rick-rolling trailer, released before the first episode, that managed to anger many fans around the world.

More revealing is the San Diego Comic-Con where a basic storyboard animation was shown, revealing Pickle Rick fighting (and decapitating) rats.

Did we mention Pickle Rick? There’s also been a short teaser showing Rick as a pickle! We don’t know why.

Also made available online are numerous teasers, spoofing various pop-culture phenomenon and using previously seen Rick and Morty characters, such as the Meeseeks.

Rick and Morty also teamed up with Alien: Covenant to produce a clip featuring a face-hugger from the attacking Rick, attempting to implant baby aliens into the grandfather.

One last clip: we’ve also seen voice actor Justin Roiland doing shots and getting drunk to perform as Rick for an especially drunk episode four.

Why the delay?

Speaking at Sundance festival earlier this year, creator Dan Harmon said of the creative process: [Me and co-creator Justin Roiland] have fights all the time and then we have fights about why we’re having fights. Well, we didn’t fight during season 2, that’s why it’s taking longer! All this fighting! So OK, let’s stop fighting!’"

These comments were then shared across the Internet, leading to many people believing the pair have been genuinely arguing over the forthcoming season.

Writing on Twitter, Harmon clarified what was said, through 15 separate messages, which we’ve compiled below. In short, “the truth is not dramatic. It’s quite boring.”

After more accusations of fighting in the press, Harmon once again used Twitter to say how wanting to produce a quality show was reason for the delay.

Read the full initial message below.

Re: confusion/concern about my comments in Indiewire interview regarding Rick and Morty. The “fights” I refer to aren’t “the reason for the delay.” The “fights” also aren’t what you call a fight when you have one in your home or street. I’m talking about fights like “what joke to do.” It’s the statements back to back that’s confusing: I was saying “the buck stops with me and Justin.” It was our usual perfectionism, etc. Then, I was moving on, in trademark rambling, to try to express how hard and confusing it can be in a RAM writers room. Chasing tails.

I understand and we are flattered that in an information vacuum, with the show so late, any morsel of info is going to have huge weight. But the truth is not dramatic. It’s quite boring. We love our show. It’s a weird show that we struggle to not overthink OR underthink. As for now, they’re drawing it.

We don’t update on exactly where every episode is in pipeline for two reasons (uh oh sub enumeration): One is that we want you harassing the bosses as opposed to hard-at-work artists and editors, or writers that finished months ago. The other is that it is out of our jurisdiction to discuss schedule. That’s Adult Swim’s biz. Totally unrelated. Hence the info shortage.

So, I’m sorry I can’t say “we fractured a creative valve in sector three" or “it’s Paul’s fault. GET HIM!” No hidden truth. We slow. Sorry. Part of what I was trying to express is that WE would sit and ponder, what’s the problem here, how can we write faster, why we so slow? And then we’d go “what made us faster in season one" and then we’d go “we didn’t sit here talking about this, let’s just do this,” etc.

I tell you, as a self destructively honest guy, Justin and I have literally never fought. Season three isn’t late because of “fighting.” In fact, ironically, maybe THAT’s the delay-cause. We respect and terrify each other and always want the other to be happy.

How many episodes?

Whereas season one had 11 episodes and season two had 10, the third will feature 14, as confirmed by Harmon last year.

Do we know anything about them?

Yes! Along with 'The Rickshank Redemption', we know the name of episode number two, all thanks to Summer voice actor Spencer Grammer, who posted a photo of the script — written by Jane Becker — to Instagram.

Also writing episodes this season are newcomers Robot Chicken’s Jessica Gao, Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe, along with trusted writers Ryan Ridley and Dan Guterman.