'Rick and Morty' season 3 release date, news: animation process causes delays to premiere

A promotional image for "Rick and Morty" Facebook/RickandMorty

"Rick and Morty" season 3 is set to launch before the end of the year, but Adult Swim still has to announce an official premiere date. Scriptwriters on the show, Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe, now confirm that the writing process for all of the episodes is done and that the only thing holding the premiere back is the animation process.

Speaking on the Chicks Who Script podcast, the writers revealed that episodes have all been written and some of the episodes have already been fully animated. As of the moment, they are simply waiting for an early screening and following that the producers may forward with announcing a release date.

"We ended four weeks ago, I think. I think they're done soon, they're done really soon. I think in a week or two they're going to have screenings in the production office," Rosbe explained.

According to a report from Cinema Blend, this news should come as no surprise because "Rick and Morty" uses an unconventional approach when it comes to its animation process. Unlike other cartoon shows, the series uses something referred to as "retroscripting" in which the animators re-do their work to adapt to the voice actors' ad-libs.

Very often, the voice actors read their script, ad-lib some of the lines, and then these changes are written down before the animators ever get to start drawing. In "Rick and Morty" the ad-libs are added on the spot, and the animators then have to adjust their finished work to reflect the changes in the script.

This is the reason why Rick, voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland, often mumbles and stutters while speaking since behind the screens Roiland is thinking and ad-libbing his lines.

With this new update, it is still likely that "Rick and Morty" season 3 is still going to premiere before the end of the year, possibly December.

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