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How to watch Rick and Morty in order - Wubba lubba dub dub!

Rick and Morty: How to watch Adult Swim’s animated comedy

Rick and Morty arguing as usual. — Image credit: Adult Swim

Guides by Joshua Lapin-Bertone, Contributing writer

Published on Mon Oct 14 2024

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There is nothing more wholesome than a day with your grandfather….unless he’s Rick Sanchez. Rick is an eccentric scientist with a love for alcohol. Morty Smith is his 14 year old grandson. Morty acts as Rick’s uneasy assistant and usually winds up regretting. Together, their adventures have taken them to strange places across space, time, and even the multiverse.

Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon, Rick and Morty has been delighting fans since its 2013 premiere. The Adult Swim animated comedy combines sharp wit with sci-fi and fantasy, often pushing the boundaries of traditional storytelling. If you’re looking to begin your journey with Rick and Morty, Popverse has you covered! This guide will tell you everything you need to know to begin watching Adult Swim’s animated comedy.

How to watch Rick and Morty in release order

If you want to watch Rick and Morty in order, just start from the first episode and go from there. However, if you’re a completist who wants to watch every animated short and spin-off in release order, we’ve got you covered. Just follow this watch order…..

Don’t forget, if you want to follow the main storyline, just stick with the main series. Everything else is just icing on the Rick and Morty cake.

Can I watch Rick and Morty in any order?

While Rick and Morty has some standalone episodes, you’ll get a much better viewing experience if you watch in order. The series has strong continuity, with regular callbacks and recurring plot threads. You can still enjoy the show by watching random episodes, but you’ll be less confused if you just start from the beginning.

What’s the difference between Rick and Morty and Rick and Morty: The Anime?

As the title suggests, Rick and Morty: The Anime is an anime spin-off of Rick and Morty. The series is a playful parody of ‘90s era anime, giving it a different tone than the main Rick and Morty series. In addition, Rick and Morty: The Anime contains a different voice cast. Rick’s characterization is also slightly nicer than his original counterpart.

According to Adult Swim creative director Jason DeMarco, Rick and Morty: The Anime takes place within a different reality in the Rick and Morty multiverse. In other words, these are different versions of Rick and Morty. If Rick hypothetically loses a hand in the anime, he’ll still have two hands in the main series.

When does Rick and Morty season 8 come out?

If you’re waiting for Rick and Morty season 8, sit tight because it won’t be ready this year. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 2023 actors and writers strikes delayed production of Rick and Morty season 8, pushing it to 2025. The good news is the series was given a bulk renewal, taking it through season 10. In the meantime, we can still occupy ourselves during the wait by watching Rick and Morty: The Anime and catching up on some of the animated shorts.

What about The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti?

The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti was a series of animated shorts created by Justin Roiland. The shorts were vulgar parodies of Marty McFly and Doc Brown from the Back to the Future series. If you take a look at the character designs, you can clearly see how they influenced Rick and Morty. Doc and Mharti can be considered rough drafts or prototypes of Rick and Morty. However, when Rick and Morty was pitched as a series, it became its own entity with conceptual differences from Doc and Mharti.

As a result, we didn’t put the Doc and Mharti shorts on our watch order. However, if you’re curious they are available to view on YouTube. Just be warned….if you thought Rick and Morty was raunchy, this takes things to a new level.

Where can I watch Rick and Morty?

If you want to watch Rick and Morty, then you’ll need a Max subscription. The streaming service is currently home to Rick and Morty and the anime spin-off. If you want to watch the various shorts and Vindicators 2, those are available on YouTube. To make things easy for you, we’ve linked each of them in the release order section of the guide.

Now you have everything you need to begin enjoying Rick and Morty! Wubba lubba dub dub!

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Joshua Lapin-Bertone: Joshua is a pop culture writer specializing in comic book media. His work has appeared on the official DC Comics website, the DC Universe subscription service, HBO Max promotional videos, the Batman Universe fansite, and more. In between traveling around the country to cover various comic conventions, Joshua resides in Florida where he binges superhero television and reads obscure comics from yesteryear.