It's been ten years Rick and Morty premiered on Adult Swim, and in that time it has gone on to reshape all of pop culture in its image through its quirky blend of dark humor, irreverent creativity, and well-written characters. Co-created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, the animated sci-fi sitcom about the multi-dimensional misadventures of an alcoholic mad scientist and his hapless adolescent grandson has since become one of the most important animated series. The Simpsons in its heyday.
After almost 70 episodes, the influence of Rick and Morty's humor and writing about video games, movies, and TV feels too big to map. There is even one Rick and Morty anime spin-off in sight. But perhaps the place where we can feel the reach of Rick and Morty most evident is its measurable impact on yet another pop culture giant: the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Of all the trends in popular culture that can be attributed to Rick and MortyFollowing the company's success, nothing is clearer than the popularization of its central conceit: the multiverse. Similar to how the Wachowskis The Matrix helped popularize simulation theory, the concept of a hypothetical series of infinitely variable universes was at the heart of Rick and Morty's earliest adventures and helped elevate the show from its origins as a crude parody of Back to the future.
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“We're definitely not starting with the multiverse anymore,” Harmon told Polygon in an interview about the writing process behind it Rick and Morty season 7. “There was a peak there where it became so much fun that it was irresistible to writers old and new, where a lot of (Rick and Morty) pitches would start with: 'Let's say there is a blank Rick and he have a blank Rick party and blank Rik shows up.' Marvel has gotten into this, and they should, because comic books invented this stuff; we just took it out and put Gwyneth Paltrow in Sliding doors.”
While Harmon is correct in attributing the popular origins of the multiverse as a storyteller to Marvel and DC Comics, Rick and Morty is responsible for introducing the term into the broader lexicon of popular culture, and making it the new backbone of the MCU.
When Rick and Morty Premiering in 2013, Marvel Studios had just returned from the first “phase” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of The Avengers. In 2019, just months after the release of Avengers: Endgamethe capstone of the MCU's decade-long storyline known as the Infinity Saga, Rick and Morty debuted its fourth season, the first to premiere after Adult Swim's much-publicized 70-episode renewal order. Both franchises were important cultural touchstones in their own right, but with the MCU's biggest crossover event behind them, Marvel Studios could find the series' future in Rick and Mortyboth in concept (that of the multiverse) and through its stable of writers.
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In the decade that followed Rick and Morty has been on the air, several alumni of the series' writing staff have been recruited to work on multiple TV shows and films within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and even helmed the next big era in the franchise called, you guessed it it all, the Multiverse Saga.
Jessica Gao, the writer behind the Primetime Emmy Award-winning episode “Pickle Rick,” became the showrunner and creator of Marvel streaming miniseries She-Hulk: Lawyer; Jeff Loveness, the co-writer of the Primetime Emmy Award-winning episode “The Vat of Acid,” was the writer for the 2023 episode Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania; and Michael Waldron, who worked as a writer on the series' fourth season Rick and Mortyhas since created the Marvel streaming series Loki and write the script for 2022 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessand he is currently in demand as a writer for 2026's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and 2027 Avengers: Secret Wars. The links between the popularity of Rick and Morty and the ubiquity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe go back even further, with none other than series co-creator Dan Harmon contributing uncredited script analysis and dialogue work during 2016's production Doctor Strange.
Image: Swimming for adults
Rick and MortyThe film's impact on culture has been felt far beyond the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Writers from the show have gone on to write for shows such as Invincible And Star Trek: Lower Decks and movies like Renfield. Unfortunately, the show's co-creator, Justin Roiland, who was fired from the show earlier this year following allegations of domestic violence, may be the alumnus who has left the biggest impact on pop culture to date. In addition to providing the iconic voices for the show's main characters for its first six seasons, he also co-created Solar opposites, provided voices for video games and even helped create a few games of his own. Outside of movies and TV, the series even has a mountain of promotional ties with brands ranging from Pringles and Wendy's and games like Death stranding And God of war Ragnarök. And of course, who could forget the infamous McDonald's Szechuan sauce debacle of 2017?
Despite this long list, this is just the beginning Rick and Mortyits broader impact. to actually encapsulate the entirety of how Rick and Morty has expanded beyond its own series to gain a foothold in almost every part of mainstream media would be daunting and would fill a book. But the fact that it now has the biggest film franchise of all time wrapped around its finger seems like a good start.
But perhaps the most impressive thing about the series is that, ten years after its inception, it refuses to get stuck in its own groove. As Harmon said, while the rest of the world is just catching up on multiverses, Rick and Morty is on to something new and figuring out how to best shape the future of his own universe, and potentially another decade of pop culture in the process.