Are There Really Infinite Mortys?

A scientist with a mysterious backstory. His grandson, a reluctant participant in multidimensional intergalactic shenanigans. This is Rick and Morty, and if you haven’t been swept up in this wild ride yet, don’t worry: Either the critically acclaimed TV show or the successful App Store game will pull you in.

Between episodes of the Adult Swim series—cocreated by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon—fans can experience their own adventures in Pocket Mortys. In this game, parallel-universe Ricks have been traveling between dimensions to collect and battle Mortys of various shapes, sizes, species, and genders. You can even take your horde of unlocked Mortys and battle other Ricks anywhere in the world.

Where does all that awesome come from? After all, Roiland and Harmon didn’t just create the show—they keep this entire universe running. That’s a tall order considering it spans potentially unlimited alternate universes. Still, the two somehow found the time to chat with us about the game, the show, and the characters’ future.

So, Pocket Mortys. It’s kind of ingenious to sic the infinite Mortys on each other in a Morty-on-Morty combat-style adventure. How’d the project get started?

Roiland: [Developer] Big Pixel presented the idea to Adult Swim Games, and I absolutely loved it—the idea of herding a bunch of Mortys around and fighting them was hilarious. But then I went back to working on the show and completely forgot about it. Big Pixel and Adult Swim Games worked quietly on the game, and then suddenly—like a surprise gift in the mail—we got a test build. When the game went live, the entire writers’ room was playing obsessively.

Are there really infinite Mortys out there in the multiverse? Or will we know when we’ve seen all of them?

Roiland: When we talk about the multiverse, we use the word “infinite” a lot; and when we actually think about “infinite,” our brains melt. There is a central finite curve of accessible realities, and they get weirder and weirder as you get to the edges of that curve, but past that curve is just garbage, inhospitable static realities. All this is to say, I think we can safely assume we haven’t seen every potential Morty.

Of all the Mortys out there, who is your favorite?

Roiland: The One True Morty because he has a robot arm and a Mohawk and he rides a supercool space motorcycle. Plus he’s the leader of an entire insane religion based around Mortys. I still don’t understand how he’s not game-breakingly overpowered.

Harmon: I know my least favorite Morty is Veiny Morty. I just get freaked out about cardiovascular stuff. My choice has gotta be Scruffy Morty from the beginning of the game.

Will we see Easter egg–like treats pop up in Pocket Mortys that’ll cause conspiracies? Will we see references to the game in the show?

Roiland: Keep your eyes peeled. The secrets of C-137 Rick’s origin story are scattered throughout the game, hidden in the environment art. As for the game looping back into the show’s continuity...I don’t actually know. Anything is possible if the right idea hits us. Right now, I feel like it’s taking place on a citadel in another reality within the multiverse. Are there multiple citadels of Ricks? Does anything even matter at that point? I guess not. I guess that’s Rick’s mantra. Nothing matters in an “infinite” multiverse.

You’ve created a phenomenon with the show. What Rick and Morty “thing” do you want stores to carry that has yet to be made?

Roiland: The merch so far has been incredible! I would love to see a bunch of weird rubbery plumbuses in the toy isle. Oh! And really cool puppets like the Billy Baloney from Pee-wee’s Playhouse. Man, I loved puppets as a kid. It would also be neat to have a series of talking electronic Rick and Morty figures, and when you place them next to each other, they hold conversations.

Harmon: A huge 100-hour-plus video might not count as “merchandising,” but that’s the thing I definitely want to see. Or a really great time-wasting clicker that has recursive logic to it. And how about an Inspector Gadget–type Rick figure that’s 10 inches tall and has all sort of gadgets that come out of it?

You released the first episode of season 3 on April 1, 2017, and then went quiet about the rest of the season. Why’d you do that?

Roiland: I think it’s fun to mess with the fans in a fun way. When we did that on April 1, the response was, “Yeah, right...APRIL FOOLS’!” And then to watch it all play out on Twitter was just incredible.

Harmon: I was waiting for someone to ask me, “Where’s season 3?” so I could say, “What do you expect me to do, just wave a magic wand and release it right now? All right...just this one time.”

Roiland: They ran the episode on a loop until midnight, and that really helped word of mouth to spread. You can actually track the awareness by how often the Rick and Morty shirts that Dan wears are recognized, and it’s skyrocketed to the point where Dan can’t even wear them anymore!

Any last words before you portal back to your dimension?

Roiland: I’d love to see a Pocket Mortys sequel that has an even longer campaign! We shall see!

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