The new voice actors for Rick and Morty have been revealed – after thousands of people auditioned.
As of Rick and Morty season 7, Rick is now voiced by newcomer Ian Cardoni, while Morty is played by Harry Belden.
They replace Justin Roiland, who was fired from the Adult Swim series after charges relating to felony domestic battery and false imprisonment were revealed in January. The charges were later dropped due to "insufficient evidence.". More allegations surrounding Roiland emerged in a later report from NBC News. Roiland’s lawyer stated they were "false and defamatory".
On the casting process, showrunner Scott Marder told The Hollywood Reporter: "We heard thousands. It went on for six months. It was really wide. It almost went so wide that we debated doing a global hotline though we knew it would wind up being a prank line. We felt like we needed to go that far and wide."
Marder also opened up on the difficulties behind finding Roiland’s replacement – including some hilariously inaccurate performances.
"Rick was a lot harder than I expected; everyone sounded like Macho Man Randy Savage or like a cousin of his," Marder recalled. "No one sounded exactly like Rick. It was tricky. People had it in splashes but once you bring them back in, they couldn’t do it conversationally, which is what we needed. It was exhaustive."
Marder added of the final decision: "They both came through rigorous casting calls. Ian was early on and Harry came after we exhausted every resource. We had multiple waves of narrowing people down."
You can hear Cardoni and Belden on new episodes of Rick and Morty season 7, airing weekly on Adult Swim. For more on the show’s upcoming episodes, check out our guide to the Rick and Morty season 7 release schedule. Then take a look back at the animated series’ previous era with our ranking of the best Rick and Morty episodes.
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