Just outside the convention center, Adult Swim held its Adult Swim on the Green featuring a fun alternative for those who weren’t able to score a ticket to head inside San Diego Comic Con. Each night, Adult Swim held certain ticketed events open to the public that dedicated fans swiped up as soon as they were up for grabs. We attended Adult Swim Presents: Rick and Morty which has grown quite a huge fan base over the past few seasons.
Unsure what to expect, the night was a pop-up panel with creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland alongside their cast members Sarah Chalke (Beth), Spencer Grammar (Summer), Rob Schrab, and later in the panel, one of the show’s live animator came on stage to accompany a few made-up storylines.
In the beginning, Harmon hyped the crowd up by revealing that the cast would be doing a live read accompanied by storyboard illustrations of an incomplete episode he had written in 30 minutes. A treat for attendees since this episode will likely never hit the airwaves due to the adult content of some of the scenes.
Just to paint a picture for those who couldn’t attend: The cold open begins with the family (minus Gary) enjoying breakfast. Summer mentions her plans from the previous night which intrigues Rick. He becomes driven and determined to get more information from Summer by any means necessary. And we mean literally any. means. necessary. May we remind you, this is Rick and Morty.
Once the table read is finished, Harmon and Roiland asked the audience for potential cold open plots so the cast can improvise on the spot. One of the improvised cold opens included an Interdimensional Cable sketch in which Rick and Morty are watching a different dimension’s version of Back to the Future where Doc and Marty got into some inappropriate shenanigans. Another suggestion that was thrown out by an audience member was for Rick to invite the family to a Midsommar style festival, complete with crazy Rick inventions that even included kitchen appliances that formed into a locomotive to transport the family.
The night closed out by taking questions from the audience. One of the season 4 spoilers we were provided with was that we will see the return of Phoenixperson (voiced by non-other that Dan Harmon himself), which we haven’t seen since the end credits of “The Rickshank Redemption.”
Fans also asked if the iconic fan-favorite Mr. Poopy-Butthole is slated to make a return to the show. Justin replied that he will bookend the series to which the crowd erupted, but these guys are known to be jokesters so who knows if what they told fans really has any validity, if these hold true, we cannot wait for their return this fall.