Adult Swim Fires "Rick and Morty" Creator and Main Voice Actor Justin Roiland Over Domestic Violence Allegations

Just allegations, note. But he's been fired from his own show.

He voices both titular characters. They have female actors to voice the female titular characters.

In addition to creating the show -- or co-creating it; Dan Harmon developed it with him from his original idea -- he's also a producer, writer, and director on the show.

In other words, he doesn't just supply the voices, he's pretty much the main creative voice of the show.

Rick and Morty will continue without its co-creator Justin Roiland after domestic violence charges were brought against him, Adult Swim has confirmed.

The network released a statement on Tuesday, January 24 in which it confirmed that it had cut ties with Roiland but that the animated series would continue.

Sharing the statement on Instagram, it said: "Adult Swim has ended its association with Justin Roiland. Rick and Morty will continue. The talented and dedicated crew are hard at work on Season 7."

We don't even know who this Mystery Accuser is:

Roiland has been charged with domestic battery with corporal injury and false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit in connection to an incident in 2020. If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.

Roiland pleaded not guilty in 2020, and his attorney previously told Newsweek they expect the charges to be dismissed.

In a statement shared with Newsweek earlier this month, Roiland's attorney T. Edward Welbourn said: "It is hard to overstate how inaccurate the recent media coverage of this situation has been.

"To be clear, not only is Justin innocent but we also have every expectation that this matter is on course to be dismissed once the district attorney's office has completed its methodical review of the evidence."

He continued: "We look forward to clearing Justin's name and helping him move forward as swiftly as possible."

The incident allegedly took place in January 2020, and a criminal complaint was filed against Roiland in May of that year by an anonymous "Jane Doe" who was said to be dating him at the time.

The show was already in a Marvel-like decline (though I haven't seen Season 6 yet). I don't think I'll bother watching the show with Fake Rick and Fake Morty.

The #Cancelers aren't done just yet -- they want the show's other co-creator, Dan Harmon, also fired, over his harassment of a female writer on Community.

Her name is Megan Ganz -- she's a writer on Always Sunny now, and she's the Meg who produces their podcast for YouTube. She has a major role in the Always Sunny trivia game episode.

Roiland's career took a major blow over the last few weeks, after details about inappropriate interactions with various people, as well as domestic violence charges, emerged. He's since been removed from the Rick and Morty team, as well as Squanch Games, but Dan Harmon--Roiland's partner--remains.

This doesn't seem like a great idea, if you ask the horde of Rick and Morty fans out there. Harmon's own problematic tendencies also came to light during Roiland's ousting, and--while fewer concerning comments about minors emerged--Harmon is no saint himself. The Community creator has been in hot water before, after he became obsessed with, and sexually harassed, one of his female writers.

This happened ten years ago, during Community's run, and he's apologized and already took a hit to his career over it. (I think that's why he's in cartoons now.) And Megan Ganz, the woman he harassed, has herself forgiven him.

But once you start purging, where do you stop?

On the last day of 2017, Harmon published a now-deleted Twitter post in which he said, "This was truly the Year of the A**hole. Myself included," and addressed his hope for a better 2018.

Before long, Megan Gaz, who'd been a staff writer with Harmon on Community and has since gone on to executive produce It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, replied, "Care to be more specific? Redemption follows allocution."

In a surprising turn of events, Harmon and Ganz exchanged a public dialogue in which Harmon confessed to treating Ganz "like garbage." He said, "I'm filled with regret and a lot of foggy memories about abusing my position, treating you like garbage. I would feel a lot of relief if you told me there was a way to fix it. I'll let you call the shots. Til then, at least know I know I was an awful boss and a selfish baby."

Ganz's memory, on the other hand, was crystal clear. "I wish my memories were foggier," she wrote. "I wish there was a way to fix it. It took me years to believe in my talents again, to trust a boss when he complimented me and not cringe when he asked for my number. I was afraid to be enthusiastic, knowing it might be turned against me later."

After more back and forth in which Harmon apologized, and Ganz didn't let him off the hook that easily, Harmon brought up the issue on his podcast a week later, addressing the topic at length. After it aired, Ganz accepted his apology in a now-deleted Twitter post and called it a "masterclass in How to Apologize."

Not that this makes it too much better, but the sense I get is that he didn't sexually harass her as people usually think of it, that is, demamding sex. I think he fell in love with a unicorn -- a cute female comedy writer who was actually funny and not filling a Diversity Slot -- and he would not stop pestering her about dating him, and got pissy and moody when she made it clear that his feelings were not reciprocated. And he was definitely her boss, and impossible to avoid, so that would be a case of a very uncomfortable, even "hostile," work environment.

But he owed up to it and she accepted. What business is this of anyone else's?

Ah, so another valuable IP goes on the Woke Bonfire.

Related: The M-She-U's Kevin Feige says that if you don't focus on story and entertainment first, all of your social messaging will fall on deaf ears.

Wait, the M-She-U's Kevin Feige said that?!!

I guess the failure of Phase 4 has finally woke his bitch ass up.

Feige's admission came during an appearance on The Movie Business Podcast with host Jason Squire, who asked him what the secret to Marvel Studios' success is.

As part of his answer, Feige detailed how the company goes through post mortems where they examine what they could have done better after the release of each motion picture or television series.

He then detailed, "And I guess to distill it down of what lessons are learned: is to entertain the audience at every turn."

Feige elaborated, "Frank Capra has a quote that our co-president Louis D'Esposito quotes often, which is -- basically to distill down to: entertain first. You can have as many beautiful messages, and beautiful life theories, and beautiful thematics that you want to put into the world that all of us do, and all of our filmmakers do, but if you're not entertaining first it will fall on deaf ears."

Um, did Disney's co-president Louis D'Esposito quote that to the M-She-U's Kevin Feige recently? Did he quote that "often" over the course of the last year, perhaps?

Has that quote been drilled into Feige's head with every fresh failure from Marvel Disney?

That would be my guess!

Let it burn. Let them all burn.

Life is good.

posted by Lamont the Big Dummy at 02:54 PM

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