Television

Bizarre Rick And Morty Teaser Boosts Anticipation For Season 4 Announcement

Rick and Morty Teaser Adult Swim/Twitter
By AJ Caulfield

Is the Rick and Morty renaissance upon us?

After what's felt like 100 years of waiting for Rick and Morty to return to Adult Swim for its fourth season of space-and-time-traveling shenanigans, the official Twitter account for the series posted a bizarre teaser that has fans both scratching their heads in curiosity and sitting up in their seats in hopes that an announcement about season 4 might be coming soon. 

Coming in at a short 15 seconds in length, the teaser doesn't offer any legitimate details on what's in store on the next season of Rick and Morty. What it does feature, however, are clips — all animated in a far-out, dreamlike manner that differs greatly from the relatively traditional, clean-cut style of the actual series — of Rick and Morty (both voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) in strange scenarios that focus on the mad scientist eating or killing his grandson through various means. 

In one moment, Rick is a shark-like beast that devours Morty, animated as a jellyfish; in another, a Godzilla Rick torches a city, leaving a Mothra version of Morty to watch the carnage in horror. Elsewhere, Rick is a hippo hungry for a tiny bird-Morty. 

And if that wasn't wacky enough, there's no actual dialogue included in the teaser — it's all set to the unsettling sounds of a voice chanting "Rick, Morty, Rick, Morty" on repeat.

Take a look below. 

Upon first glance, this 15-second clip is nothing more than an off-the-wall tease at the impending (and long-awaited) fourth season of the Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon-created animated comedy. But to those more immersed in the Rick and Morty fandom than the casual viewer, the teaser carries geniune weight.  

The final moment of the will strike fans as the most interesting and meaningful. It sees a massive fist shoot up from the bottom of the screen, grab hold of a black hole version Rick that's sucking up a planet-Morty, and crush him like a bug. We then learn that the fist is that of Evil Morty — the Morty that lives in an alternate dimension who was featured in the season 1 episode "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" and last seen in season 3's "The Ricklantis Mixup," in which he survived an assassination attempt and tricked the public into voting for him as the leader of the Citadel of Ricks. His inclusion in this clip seems to suggest that he'll play an important role in season 4, perhaps rising to become the main antagonist of the new story arc or even the central villain of the entire show. 

Evil Morty aside, this teaser, kooky as it is, does make one thing abundantly clear: Rick and Morty do not have a stable or healthy relationship. The series explored this in season 3 more than ever before, rolling out episodes like "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender" that touched on Morty's idolization of his grandfather, "Morty's Mind Blowers" that highlighted how lost in their own adventures Rick and Morty can get (often to the detriment of each other), and "Pickle Rick" that encapsulated Rick's tendency to prioritize his wants and needs over his family's. Many assumed season 4 would continue along this path, further diving into all the dysfunctions of the Sanchez-Smith household; with this teaser, it now seems guaranteed. 

Lengthy contract negotiations and multiple delays in the season 4 renewal process have left fans antsy for more Rick and Morty, and while AdultSwim may not make any announcements about the new season of Rick and Morty off the back of this new teaser, at least viewers can fall asleep with a smile knowing that they have a whopping 70 episodes – seven full seasons — of madness to look forward to. 

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