Rick and Morty fans are a patient bunch.
And thankfully, the object of their obsession has been riveting television and its rewatchability has kept fans of Cartoon Network’s cult classic sane. For now.
But as the third season concludes Sunday, October 1 fans will be turning their attention to a potential fourth season.
What’s the status?
Well, there is no official order for a season 4 yet — though there is little doubt one will be made. But it seems as through there is no timeframe whatsoever. Enough to drive the loyal fans of the show mad.
Between season’s two and three, with Rick imprisoned after a sting operation caused his world’s to collide at the wedding of his best friend Bird Person, there was an 18-month gap between new episodes. Which technically could have been even longer, as the show made a surprise season 3 debut on April Fool’s Day before the season’s run began in earnest on July 30.
A similar wait could torture fans once again, as production has not started on the next season. In fact, with 14 episodes speculated to be on the slate for the third season, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, the co-creators, had to settle for just 10 in season three. They will try again to lenghten the season next time, as Harmon said a few days ago.
“I’m still learning how to do the show efficiently while catering to the perfectionist in all of us,” Harmon said. “I would like to think I’ve learned enough from my mistakes in season three that we could definitely do 14 now.”
Fans will note that the third season has been good, but perhaps not of the same quality of the first two seasons. For a show with three seasons in the books, just 31 episodes is still a relative infancy in cartoon terms. The Simpsons has made 618 episodes, Family Guy 289 and even Futurama aired 140 episodes.
“The nice healthy way to approach this is I want to prove it with the first 10 of season four,” Harmon said. “Prove it to ourselves, to production, to the network — that it’s so easy that we’ll earn additional episodes.”
