‘Rick And Morty’ Season 3 Coming Sooner Than We Thought [Spoilers & Video]

Rick and Morty fans have known that there was going to be a Season 3 of the incredibly popular Adult Swim show since three episodes into Season 2. What Rick and Morty fans didn’t know what how badly they were going to be left hanging and yearning for answers after the finale of Rick and Morty Season 2. Rick and Morty lovers got more than they bargained for when they got emotionally invested in Rick, only to see him locked away from his family (presumably forever) in intergalactic jail at the end of Season 2.

Then came the news that people were going to have to wait 18 months or so to find out the fate of Rick, Morty, and the rest of the show’s now-beloved characters.

At the end of last season, the only one whose fate seemed secure was Mr. Poopybutthole.

That moment when you take a selfie and realize you look like Mr. Poopybutthole. xD – pic.twitter.com/7r7BqH30Re

— Streamer Ollie (@Reksaurian) May 26, 2016

In fact, it was Mr. Poopybutthole who let it drop that fans could be waiting until March of 2017 for the return of Rick and Morty following his “after credits” monologue. When fans first got a glimpse of a relatively spry Mr. Poopybutthole, they were pretty stoked (a lot of us had thought he’d died following getting blasted by Beth earlier in Season 2), then he let it drop.

“A year and a half…or longer.”

Now, the Christian Times is reporting some good news for long-suffering fans of Rick and Morty who have waited since October 2015 for a little kernel of hope. According to the report, Rick and Morty Season 3 should be hitting the airwaves a lot sooner. The co-creator of Rick and Morty, Dan Harmon, mentioned at the Magic City Comic Con that the show should be ready to by the end of the year.

The news comes as some welcome salve to the damaged souls of Rick and Morty fans who are still reeling from the devastation meted out by the conclusion of Season 2.

In addition to dropping hints that Rick and Morty Season 3 will be coming to a TV (or laptop, or phone, or tablet) near you months sooner than anticipated, Harmon also assured fans that the disturbing cliffhanger that concluded Rick and Morty Season 2 will be wrapped up pretty quickly. He doesn’t say how, but he promises that the show will get back on track pretty fast.

first episode of rick and morty "just keep shooting morty, you have no idea what prison is like here" pic.twitter.com/fzW9axLp1H

— ?? (@failurernachine) March 17, 2016

And since the title of the series hasn’t been changed to Morty (at least to the best of the world’s collective knowledge), we can only assume that Rick Sanchez is going to get out of the intergalactic clink with his hide intact.

“I don’t think anybody wants to do a third season that simply spends a whole bunch of episodes dealing with a situation that we created at the end of the second season. So I think that’s a non-spoiler way of saying things should be okay pretty quickly.”

How Rick manages to pull it off will be reserved for the Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere, of course, but if it’s really coming at the end of the year instead of next spring, fans won’t have long to wait. 2016 is halfway through, after all.

There have also been some rumors that Rick and Morty and the show’s cast of denizens might be heading to Hawaii in season 3, but that hasn’t been confirmed. The show’s co-creators have said such a drastic move would require the consent of Adult Swim. Of course.

The RICK AND MORTY Theme Gets a Metal Cover https://t.co/sxxgCVKlYH pic.twitter.com/kqKZvQudRF

— Unicorn Investigations – Twitch Pixel Studios (@TwitchPixelAnim) May 29, 2016

Something else that’s been tossed round by the show’s creators is the possibility of weaving a deep, dark secret into the Rick and Morty plot. Something no one knows (well, except the show’s creators, but they’re not telling). Such a plot has been in the works since before the first episode of Rick and Morty was written say co-creators Harmon and Justin Roiland.

“We haven’t talked about this in a while, but before we wrote the first episode of Rick and Morty, we had a conversation where, I think it was Mike McMahan who said, ‘Should we decide that there is a secret we keep from the audience forever?’ But we always know it. I won’t say what.”

Will we see the allusions of a Rick and Morty multiverse-shattering secret in Season 3? I guess we’ll find out, and way sooner than Mr. Poopybutthole let on at the end of the second season, too.

One more bonus for Rick and Morty fans is coming in the show’s third season. Season 3 of Rick and Morty will be longer than the first two, with 14 episodes slated for production.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]