Rick And Morty: How Many Episodes Are In Season 4?
Now that the wait for Rick and Morty season 4 is nearly over, the reality that more space-faring adventures featuring everyone's favorite dysfunctional genius-grandfather-and-paranoid-grandson duo are in store is hitting fans like a ton of bricks. Excitement is high — as high as the tall peaks on the Whirly-Dirly roller-coaster — and so too is curiosity. One thing the Rick and Morty community has been wondering from the minute series co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland announced the November 2019 premiere date for season 4 is just how long the new batch of episodes will be. Fans have hungered for over two years for more Rick and Morty madness, so will the wait be worth it with an extra-long season?
Take a deep breath in and let out a big sigh of relief, Rick and Morty enthusiasts – Harmon and Roiland have just revealed the official Rick and Morty season 4 episode count.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Roiland, who also provides the voices for both titular characters Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith, shared that the fourth season of Rick and Morty will be 10 episodes long.
The good news is that this episode count is exactly the same as seasons 2 and 3, and one episode shorter than season 1. The somewhat disappointing news is that Rick and Morty season 4 isn't expanded, which some fans were hoping it would be considering the huge gap in time between seasons and given what Harmon once teased about the upcoming bundle of episodes.
The Rick and Morty mastermind told EW in a September 2017 sit-down that he felt he had "learned enough from [his] mistakes in season 3" that he and Roiland could commit to 14 episodes for season 4. Harmon then admitted that he didn't want to definitively state that Rick and Morty season 4 would be 14 episodes in length only to have those plans fall through. It's for that reason that Harmon said he wants to "prove it with the first 10 [episodes] of season 4 – prove it to ourselves, to production, to the network — that it's so easy that we'll earn additional episodes." He further explained, "I'm still learning how to do the show efficiently while catering to the perfectionist in all of us."
A fourth season of Rick and Morty is incredibly special and important to Harmon, as he never got that far on his previous show Community before he was let go. He shared that he wants to "prove that [he's] grown" and can craft a season that's wholly satisfying from start to finish with no dips in quality in the middle.
So, yeah, Rick and Morty season 4 may be the standard 10 episodes long, but it's for a good reason — and there's still a possibility that Harmon and Roiland could roll out a few extra episodes (perhaps a holiday special or two in early 2020?) once the core season has wrapped.
Another upshot of this is that there's plenty more Rick and Morty coming in the future. The animated sci-fi series isn't going anywhere anytime soon, thanks to the massive 70-episode renewal that network Adult Swim handed it in May of 2018. Roiland stated in his recent chat with EW that it's "way too early to say" whether Rick and Morty will end at 70 episodes or 100 episodes (which he and Harmon have long said is their goal for the show for syndication purposes), and that the series could last for a very, very long time.
"On any given day, you'll feel like this thing can go for 20, 30 seasons. We have characters that don't really age. It's very Simpsons-esque. There's so much we can do to keep riding this train," he said.
Added Harmon, "Sure I'll end it! But I don't know that would be on 70. I would be equally unsurprised if you told me that this thing goes for 20 years. I wouldn't balk at that at all. If it still feels right, let's do it."
So long as people keep tuning into Rick and Morty and showing that they're passionate about it (which they clearly are considering that huge hullabaloo that happened when McDonald's re-introduced its long-discontinued Szechuan Sauce for a limited time after it was mentioned on the show), Harmon and Roiland will continue making more episodes.
Look forward to catching the first of Rick and Morty season 4's 10 episodes this November.