Rick and Morty is back later this month with Season 9, and apparently the portal gun might be pointed at movie theaters next. The show is already locked in for at least 12 seasons, so it was only a matter of time before someone said: hey, what about a feature?
Yep, a movie might finally be happening
Per The InSneider, a Rick and Morty movie is coming together after years of on-and-off chatter. The report says longtime series director Jacob Hair has been talking with Warner Bros. about doing a feature set squarely within the Adult Swim world. Nothing is signed, nothing is greenlit, but this is the most concrete momentum we have heard in a while.
Why Jacob Hair would be the guy
Hair is not some random pick. He has directed a bunch of the series' heavy hitters from Seasons 4 through 8, including:
- The Vat of Acid Episode
- Rickmurai Jack
- Night Family
- Unmortricken
- Valkyrick
If you want the movie to feel like the show at its best, that track record speaks for itself.
What kind of Rick and Morty movie are we talking about?
Co-creator Dan Harmon has kicked this can down the road before, and he has been pretty clear about the tone he wants: big-screen scope without blowing up the show's continuity. In a 2023 chat with The Hollywood Reporter, he spelled it out:
"My philosophy would be to just take a Rick and Morty adventure, and spend a bunch of extra money on it and make it 90 minutes long. Not to try to earn its feature status by virtue of canonical dramatic tone shifts or anything like that, but rather to just make it a super badass episode of Rick and Morty."
Honestly, that tracks. The series already swings for the fences on a regular weeknight; scaling that up without getting self-important is the right call.
The Zack Snyder wrinkle (yes, really)
Harmon has also said that Zack Snyder is a huge fan and even offered to help kickstart the movie with his, as Harmon put it, Snyder-ness. Harmon joked about debuting a Snyder Cut, then a director's cut of the Snyder Cut, turning it into a six-hour Rick and Morty epic with three hours in black and white. Jokes aside, the takeaway is that big-name support is there if they want it.
Where this leaves us
Short version: Season 9 lands this month on Adult Swim (on Cartoon Network), the franchise is nowhere near slowing down, and a movie is closer to real than it has been in years. It is not set in stone yet, but with Jacob Hair in talks and Harmon aiming for a longer, louder episode rather than a canon shake-up, the pieces make sense. If Rick and Morty is going theatrical, it looks like they want it to feel like Rick and Morty — just with a bigger line item for portal fluid.