Despairing Rick and Morty fans everywhere thought they finally had something to look forward as a Twitter post led them to believe that season 3 was very close to becoming reality. 

After some very long delays and lots of radio silence from Adult Swim, fans thought they had got their first concrete update on the new season thanks to tweet from co-writer Mike McMahan.

However, it turns out that it was nothing more than a very old post getting dug out and misinterpreted by desperate fans. 

The Twitter post in question showed the front cover of a Rick and Morty script but what fans failed to spot was that the date was not for February 17, 2017, as some people thought, but sadly February 17, 2016 - a whole year ago! 

McMahan saw the funny side of it, taking to his Twitter page to break the bad news to fans that they have the wrong end of the stick.  

He said: "I got kinda nervous when I heard the season 3 opening scene was out in the wild."

Later he posted: "Everyone: stop going bonkers about something from 12 months ago. It's 2017, elephant people should be allowed to get married and be happy."

In another post, he followed up: "I'm excited for you to see season 3 too, but if we just started recording last week that would be BAD news, you crazy animals."

While he's being lighthearted about it and no doubt fans will be laughing too, this will nonetheless be disappointing news for them, as they have largely been left in the dark as to when the new season is going to make it onto the small screen - if ever. 

And there was already disappointment abounding after a highly anticipated sneak peek from Adult Swim Australia on their YouTube page turned out to be little more than a collection of clips from the first two seasons spliced together.

After one year of waiting, the wait continues, with not even an approximate release window from Adult Swim to appease fans. 

Series co-creator Dan Harmon has previously been apologetic about the delay, stating: "I don't have a release date for Season 3. It's not that I know it and I'm not allowed to say it; it's [Adult Swim's] domain. What I will tell you is it's late because of us, it's late because of me."

He added: "'Yeah, we f***d up,' and it's hard to put your finger on how we fucked up. 'Rick and Morty' keeps taking longer and longer to write, and I don't know why."