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The trailer for Rick and Morty Season 4 just released, but fans already have one big question on their minds. Just how many episodes are in Rick and Morty Season 4? The trailer said five episodes are releasing in November, but is that all we can expect after waiting for so long? More than likely, this is just the first half of Season 4, but this has not yet been officially confirmed. Heavy has reached out to Adult Swim and the Cartoon Network for comment. Read on for more details.
‘Rick and Morty’ Season 4 Is Supposed to Have 10 Episodes Total, but ‘Half the Season’ Is Releasing Starting in November
The new trailer that just released for Rick and Morty ended with a mention of five all-new episodes for Season 4, starting Sunday, November 10.
Here’s the screenshot:
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And here’s the full trailer.
The trailer says that five all-new episodes will start on Sunday, November 10 at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. It then goes on to say: “half the season you deserve, all the season we could handle.”
This is where fans are confused. Season 4 is supposed to be 10 episodes long, but the trailer only mentions five.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in July, Justin Roiland said that Season 4 would be 10 episodes long. So that’s not just a rumor. Roiland himself said the season would be 10 episodes long, the same number of episodes as Seasons 2 and 3. (Only Season 1 was longer, with 11 episodes.)
It really wasn’t that long ago that Roiland made the statement, so we’re likely looking at five episodes and then a hiatus before the second half of the season begins. This hasn’t been confirmed by Adult Swim, but it’s also not without precedent. Season 1 aired episodes 1-3 from three weeks in a row in December, then took a month break and aired three episodes, one a week, from January 13-27. The series then took another month break and aired the last five episodes every week starting March 10, 2014. In contrast, Seasons 2 and 3 started in late July/early August and aired every week without major breaks (only for Labor Day.) (This, of course, is not including the April 1 Season 3 premiere that surprised fans in 2017.)
If the five episodes for Season 4 air every week starting on November 10, that would put the first half of the season ending on December 8 (or December 15 if they take a break for Thanksgiving weekend.) So it’s possible the series simply won’t air during the Christmas/New Year break and will resume sometime later after the holidays. Since this is how most major TV series work when a season bumps up against the winter holiday, it would make sense for Rick and Morty to do the same.
Just remember: Adult Swim, Justin Roiland, and Dan Harmon haven’t issued statements or explanations yet. Heavy is reaching out to Adult Swim for comment. But “half the season you deserve,” as said in the trailer, does seem to indicate that we’ll get half the season, then have a holiday break, and then the second half of the season will return later.
‘Rick and Morty’ Season 3 Was Supposed To Be 14 Episodes, But Was Later Shortened to Ten
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It’s worth noting that it’s not without precedent for Rick and Morty to shorten a season that was originally expected to be longer. Season 3 was originally slated to be 14 episodes long but, as we all know, it ended up being 10 episodes long.
During a Magic City Comic Con panel before the season, Dan Harmon had said there were going to be 14 episodes in Season 3. But then on June 29 during the Rick and Morty special live stream event with Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland before Season 3 began, Harmon said there would be 10 episodes. Between December and June, something significant had changed. It turns out, Harmon had always hoped for 14 episodes but just couldn’t do it and still give fans the quality of Rick and Morty that they had come to expect.
In an interview with EW, Harmon explained that the Season 3 finale wasn’t necessarily going to be the Season 3 finale, but they decided it was good enough to serve that purpose.
I don’t want to poison the well but the finale is a great episode that we finale-ified when we realized we weren’t going to be able to make 14. It’s Rick in a conflict with the president of the United States. Keith David returns to reprise his role. And that’s the main story of that episode, Rick vs. the United States.
Adult Swim signed on for 70 more episodes of Rick and Morty. That announcement was made in May 2018. Adult Swim confirmed with Heavy in a statement at the time: “Adult Swim has made a long-term overall deal with the creators that will include 70 new episodes of the critically acclaimed series…”
In conclusion, the “five new episodes” being released starting November 10 likely refer to the first half of Season 4, since Justin Roiland confirmed over the summer that Season 4 would be 10 episodes long. The trailer did say “half the season” we deserve. Heavy has reached out to Adult Swim to confirm this and will update this story once Adult Swim, Justin Roiland, or Dan Harmon make an official statement.
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