Hollywood cuts ties with Justin Roiland

Rick & Morty co-creator/co-showrunner and voice actor Justin Roiland is facing domestic abuse charges.

Roiland faces one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit against an unnamed woman he was dating in 2020, according to Orange County Superior Court records. The charges were earlier reported by NBC News, which said most of the California court records are sealed under a protective order.

His series, Rick & Morty, is a huge hit for the Warner Bros Discovery-owned Adult Swim and is midway through a 70-episode order. That means money has been invested and there's money to be made. And so...

Adult Swim has announced that Roiland has been removed from the show and the characters he voices will be recast. This is going to have some pretty major ramifications on the experience viewers have with the show. In addition to voicing the titular Rick, he also voices the titular Morty.

The other co-creator/co-showrunner of the cartoon is Community creator Dan Harmon - he'll take over running the show and see out the commitment to at least the remaining episodes.

While Roiland will no longer work on the show, he will retain a co-creator credit on the show.

Hulu has joined in by cutting ties with Roiland over its two shows he is involved with: Koala Man and Solar Opposites.

Something worth keeping in mind is that just because Roiland is gone from the show, it doesn't mean he will stop being a profit participant in the highly lucrative Rick & Morty series.

Here's The Simpsons vet Bill Oakley:

Remember that even without doing voices or running the show, the creator of a series still receives large fees for every episode produced and (provided they have a decent contract) a significant percentage of the merchandise sales and various bonuses for number of episodes etc
— BILL OAKLEY (@thatbilloakley) January 25, 2023

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