Rick and Morty is finally getting the movie treatment
Adult Swim’s weirdest duo levels up
Adult Swim’s biggest animated hit is officially heading for the big screen, with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon confirming a movie is now in development.
Speaking ahead of season 9’s premiere on the 24th of May, Harmon revealed that longtime supervising director Jacob Hair will helm the feature, keeping the project firmly in the hands of someone who already knows exactly how weird, emotional and completely unhinged the show can get.
Hair first joined Rick and Morty during season 4 and quickly became a fan favourite thanks to episodes like Rick and Morty classics “The Vat of Acid Episode”, “Rattlestar Ricklactica” and “The Old Man and the Seat”.
Some of the show’s strangest episodes also happen to be its most cinematic, which makes Hair feel like a pretty logical pick for a feature-length version.
Harmon told CinemaBlend the team never seriously considered bringing in an outside filmmaker just because they’d worked on another animated project before.
“We didn’t shop around,” Harmon explained. “Jacob has it.”
Showrunner Scott Marder also hinted that season 9 already gives fans a taste of what Hair could do on a larger scale. As supervising director, he oversees the wider creative direction of the series, meaning his fingerprints are already all over the show’s recent run.
Rumours about a Rick and Morty movie have been floating around for years, but things escalated this week after reports leaked online, effectively forcing Harmon to confirm the project publicly.
The filmmaker had already hinted at the idea back in 2023, explaining that he wanted the movie to feel less like a dramatic reinvention and more like an especially massive episode.
“My philosophy would be to just take a Rick and Morty adventure, spend a bunch of extra money on it and make it 90 minutes long,” Harmon previously told The Hollywood Reporter.
So don’t expect prestige cinema or some dark, gritty reboot. This sounds like it’ll be a classic Rick and Morty adventure, just with a much bigger budget and probably even more multiversal madness.
What still isn’t clear is whether the movie will land in cinemas or head straight to streaming on HBO Max. There’s also no word yet on where the story fits into the wider timeline, or whether it’ll sit separately from the main series altogether.
Either way, the franchise isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Rick and Morty is already renewed through season 12, with season 10 due next year, meaning Adult Swim’s biggest sci-fi export could genuinely be heading towards the “100 years” Rick once promised.
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