‘Rick And Morty’ Season 3: Release Date Was Never A Mystery, Series Writer Says

The Rick and Morty Season 3 release date has been the subject of rumors — both of the substantive and of the completely-made-up variety — over the past year. Fans have taken clues about the highly anticipated Season 3 premiere from various sources, including series creator Dan Harmon, fan theories, and purely speculative reports on the matter. But as it turns out, the answer to the mystery may have been obvious all along.

In a recent tweet, series writer and producer Ryan Ridley, who also voices several characters in Rick and Morty, hinted that the truth lies with Mr. Poopy Butthole. Instead of going by the numerous release date reports that have flooded the internet, Ridley says that fans should probably turn to Mr. Poopy Butthole for the answer.

“What did Mr. Poopy Butthole predict at the end of season two? The release of season three has never really been a mystery.”

As fans can probably recall, Mr. Poopy Butthole predicted that new episodes of Rick and Morty could drop early this year. He said so in the post credits sequence of “The Wedding Squanchers,” the Season 2 finale.

“Tune in to Rick and Morty Season 3 in, like, a year and a half… or longer.”

Because “The Weddings Squanchers” aired on Oct. 4, 2015, the earliest fans can expect Rick and Morty Season 3 (based on Mr. Poopy Butthole’s announcement) is April 4. As iDigitalTimes notes, because April 4 is a Tuesday and the previous season aired on Sundays, the next one will probably drop on either April 2 or April 9. Of course, Mr. Poopy Butthole did say “or longer,” which could mean that the Season 3 premiere is still a long way off.

Mr. Poopy Butthole’s prediction was the first anyone heard about the Rick and Morty Season 3 release date. And yet, many had looked towards other sources, probably in hopes of an earlier debut for the popular Adult Swim animated series.

True enough, in January 2016, Harmon told fans at the Magic City Comic Con that the new season would be finished before the end of the year. In September, series writers Erica Rosbe and Sarah Carbiener refueled speculation of a 2016 release during a chat for the Chicks Who Script podcast. According to the two, the scripts for Rick and Morty Season 3 were completed in August, and they were just waiting for Bardel Entertainment, the Canadian animation studio, to finish working on the new season. Carbiener said that the studio would probably be done “soon” and that production room screenings of the Season 3 episodes should take place “in a week or two.”

But two months later, Harmon backpedaled on his previous statement about the Rick and Morty Season 3 release date. During an AMA session on Reddit in November, he wrote that he couldn’t give fans a definite premiere date for the new season and that he isn’t allowed to do so.

“I’m not authorized (nor would I really be able) to give you an airdate for Season 3.”

Since then, murky reports about the Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere have been rapidly circulating on the internet, giving fans of the series something to cling to in the absence of an official drop date from Cartoon Network. Last month, iDigitalTimes shot these down as “completely baseless” and “created from nothing.”

Apart from an animatic clip released in January, the cable network has yet to unveil any solid teasers for Rick and Morty Season 3, which could be an indication that the premiere is still many months away.

Adult Swim has yet to announce the official Rick and Morty Season 3 release date.

[Featured Image by PRNewsFoto/Turner Broadcasting System, Inc./AP Images]