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- This guide covers all nine aired seasons of Rick and Morty, through the season 9 finale on July 26, 2026, and the series is ongoing: Adult Swim has renewed it through season 12.
Rick and Morty Seasons Guide: All Nine Seasons Explained
Rick and Morty has aired nine seasons on Adult Swim, 91 episodes from December 2013 to July 2026. This guide lays out what each season is about, how long it is, what changed in 2023 and where to start.
Rick and Morty seasons, every season explained
Rick and Morty is an adult animated science-fiction sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon for Adult Swim, the late-night block of Cartoon Network. It premiered on December 2, 2013. The setup fits in one sentence: Rick Sanchez, a cynical mad scientist, takes his grandson Morty Smith on interdimensional adventures while the rest of the Smith household, Jerry, Beth and Summer, deals with ordinary life in a suburb outside Seattle. Almost every episode runs on the collision between those two worlds, and the show keeps finding new ways to stage it.
The series grew out of The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti, a Back to the Future parody that Roiland made for Channel 101, the short-film festival co-founded by Harmon. The characters were renamed Rick and Morty for television. Scott Marder is credited as showrunner on the season pages for seasons 7, 8 and 9, and Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer and Sarah Chalke have voiced the rest of the family since the start. This Rick and Morty seasons guide follows the show in broadcast order and keeps every summary free of finale spoilers.
The question people ask first is how many seasons there are. The answer today is nine. Season 1 has 11 episodes and each of the eight seasons after it has 10, which makes 91 episodes in total. The most recent season, season 9, aired from May 24 to July 26, 2026. The pace of the show has never been steady. The gap between the season 3 finale on October 1, 2017 and the season 4 premiere on November 10, 2019 was just over two years, while seasons 5, 6 and 7 arrived roughly a year or less apart. Season 8 followed season 7 after about seventeen months, and season 9 came ten months after season 8.
Adult Swim announced a long-term order of 70 episodes in 2018, and the season 8 page on Wikipedia counts 40 of those episodes as aired across seasons 4 through 7, which left 30 for seasons 8 through 10. In October 2024, the show was renewed for two more seasons, through season 12, with 20 more episodes. Season 10 has no announced premiere date in the Wikipedia article as of this guide's update, so season 9 is the latest to cover.
Where to start depends on the reader. The show is mostly built from self-contained episodes, so a first-time viewer can begin with the pilot and follow broadcast order without needing a recap. Rough Cut Review treats seasons 1 through 3 as the core of the show: they set the tone, introduce the recurring ideas and contain several of the episodes people mention most often. The sections below describe each of the nine seasons, one at a time, and the list near the end of the page marks the episodes to watch first when time is short. The 2023 voice change, which affects seasons 7 onward, gets its own section.
Seasons at a glance
| Season | Episodes | Aired | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | 11 | Dec 2, 2013 to Apr 14, 2014 | Sets up the family and the formula; includes "Rick Potion #9" and "Rixty Minutes" |
| Season 2 | 10 | Jul 26, 2015 to Oct 4, 2015 | Includes "Total Rickall", "Get Schwifty" and a second visit to interdimensional cable |
| Season 3 | 10 | Apr 1, 2017 to Oct 1, 2017 | Premiere aired unannounced on April 1; includes "Pickle Rick" and "The Ricklantis Mixup" |
| Season 4 | 10 | Nov 10, 2019 to May 31, 2020 | Aired in two parts of five episodes, six months apart |
| Season 5 | 10 | Jun 20, 2021 to Sep 5, 2021 | Opens with "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" and closes with "Rickmurai Jack" |
| Season 6 | 10 | Sep 4, 2022 to Dec 11, 2022 | Opens with "Solaricks"; includes "Night Family" |
| Season 7 | 10 | Oct 15, 2023 to Dec 17, 2023 | First season with Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden as Rick and Morty |
| Season 8 | 10 | May 25, 2025 to Jul 27, 2025 | Returns after about seventeen months; opens with "Summer of All Fears" |
| Season 9 | 10 | May 24, 2026 to Jul 26, 2026 | The latest aired season; opens with "There's Something About Morty" |
| Total | 91 | Dec 2, 2013 to Jul 26, 2026 | Nine seasons on Adult Swim, renewed through season 12 |
Episode counts, titles and air dates follow the Wikipedia series, season and episode-list pages, checked October 24, 2026. Season 3 began with one unannounced episode on April 1, 2017; the remaining nine episodes started airing weekly on July 30, 2017.
The season-by-season guide
Each section covers one season in order: how long it is, when it aired and what kind of stories it tells. None of them gives away how a season ends, and this Rick and Morty seasons guide treats every finale the same way. Titles are quoted from the Wikipedia episode list, and the descriptions stay at the level of premise.
Season 1: the formula (11 episodes, 2013 to 2014)
Season 1 premiered on December 2, 2013 and ended on April 14, 2014. It opens with "Pilot" and runs through "Lawnmower Dog", "Anatomy Park", "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!", "Meeseeks and Destroy" and "Rick Potion #9" before the last stretch, which starts with "Rixty Minutes" and reaches "Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind" and "Ricksy Business".
This is the show in its simplest form. Episodes are mostly standalone, the science-fiction ideas are played for comedy, and the family drama sits alongside them in the same half hour. It is also the season to try first if the question is whether the humor works, since nothing later requires it. A reader who finishes it and wants more of the same will find the formula carried straight into season 2.
Season 2: the long break and the loud returns (10 episodes, 2015)
Season 2 aired from July 26 to October 4, 2015, ten episodes starting with "A Rickle in Time". It came about fifteen months after season 1, and it arrived with a more confident handle on what the show was. Among its titles are "Mortynight Run", "Auto Erotic Assimilation", "Total Rickall", "Get Schwifty", "The Ricks Must Be Crazy", "Big Trouble in Little Sanchez" and "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate".
Several titles lean on a single high-concept premise, and the season ends with "The Wedding Squanchers". For viewers short on time, season 2 holds a high share of the episodes that fans quote, and it is a reasonable second stop after the pilot.
Season 3: the unannounced premiere (10 episodes, 2017)
Season 3 began on April 1, 2017, when "The Rickshank Rickdemption" aired as an April Fools' Day surprise with no advance announcement. The remaining nine episodes started weekly on July 30, and the season ended on October 1, 2017. That premiere is also the episode that referenced McDonald's Szechuan sauce, which McDonald's later brought back in 2018 and again in 2022.
The rest of the run includes "Rickmancing the Stone", "Pickle Rick", "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", "The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy", "Rest and Ricklaxation", "The Ricklantis Mixup", "Morty's Mind Blowers", "The ABC's of Beth" and "The Rickchurian Mortydate". "Pickle Rick" won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 2018. Rough Cut Review counts it as the season with the most episodes worth seeing first, and many first-time viewers are pointed here.
Season 4: two halves, two years later (10 episodes, 2019 to 2020)
After a gap of just over two years, season 4 premiered on November 10, 2019. It aired in two parts: the first five episodes ran that fall, and the remaining five began on May 3, 2020, with the season finishing on May 31. The first half runs from "Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat" to "Rattlestar Ricklactica"; the second from "Never Ricking Morty" through "Promortyus", "The Vat of Acid Episode", "Childrick of Mort" and "Star Mort Rickturn of the Jerri".
"The Vat of Acid Episode" won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 2020, the show's second win. During the break between the two halves, the show also released the first of its anime shorts, "Samurai & Shogun", in March 2020.
Season 5: a faster pace (10 episodes, 2021)
Season 5 aired from June 20 to September 5, 2021, about thirteen months after season 4. It started a steadier run, with seasons 5, 6 and 7 each arriving about a year or less after the one before. It opens with "Mort Dinner Rick Andre" and includes "Mortyplicity", "A Rickconvenient Mort", "Rickdependence Spray", "Amortycan Grickfitti", "Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular", "Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion", "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort" and "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall".
The season ends with "Rickmurai Jack".
Season 6: a year of its own (10 episodes, 2022)
Season 6 ran from September 4 to December 11, 2022, ten episodes beginning with "Solaricks" and "Rick: A Mort Well Lived". The list continues with "Bethic Twinstinct", "Night Family", "Final DeSmithation", "Juricksic Mort", "Full Meta Jackrick", "Analyze Piss" and "A Rick in King Mortur's Mort", and it closes with "Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation".
"Night Family" received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program in 2023 and an Annie Award nomination. A claymation short, "Summer's Sleepover", followed on October 31, 2022. Season 6 is the last one in which the original voice cast of Rick and Morty appears, since the change described below happened before season 7 aired.
Season 7: the first season of the new voices (10 episodes, 2023)
Season 7 aired from October 15 to December 17, 2023. It opens with "How Poopy Got His Poop Back" and runs through "The Jerrick Trap", "Air Force Wong", "That's Amorte", "Unmortricken", "Rickfending Your Mort", "Wet Kuat Amortican Summer" and "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie" to "Mort: Ragnarick" and "Fear No Mort".
The change in lead voices is the main fact about this season, and the section on the 2023 recast covers it. Story-wise, "Unmortricken" explores the backstory of Evil Morty, and "Rickfending Your Mort" puts the leads on trial in front of a group called the Observers.
Season 8: the return after a long break (10 episodes, 2025)
Season 8 premiered on May 25, 2025 and ended on July 27, about seventeen months after season 7. The Wikipedia page lists Scott Marder as showrunner and credits him with writing the second episode, "Valkyrick". The ten titles are "Summer of All Fears", "Valkyrick", "The Rick, The Mort & The Ugly", "The Last Temptation of Jerry", "Cryo Mort a Rickver", "The Curicksous Case of Bethjamin Button", "Ricker than Fiction", "Nomortland", "Morty Daddy" and "Hot Rick".
Guest voices include Danny DeVito, Charlie Day, Stephen Root and Tom Kenny, and the filmmakers James Gunn and Zack Snyder appear as themselves. Several episodes lean on a single genre: a Western framing story in the third episode, an Easter story in the fourth, and a movie-trap story in "Ricker than Fiction".
Season 9: the latest season (10 episodes, 2026)
Season 9 is the most recent season and the end of the aired run as of October 24, 2026. It premiered on May 24 and ended on July 26, 2026, ten episodes titled "There's Something About Morty", "Ricks Days, Seven Nights", "Rick Fu Hustle", "A Ricker Runs Through It", "Jer Bud", "Erickerhead", "MortGully: The Last Rickforest", "Rickuiem Mort a Dream", "Salute Your Morts" and "Field of Dreams".
The cast list on Wikipedia matches season 8: Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, Sarah Chalke, Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden. The premiere episode, "There's Something About Morty", received a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program in 2026. Season 10 is part of the renewal, but no premiere date has been announced in the sources checked for this guide.
The 2023 recast: Rick and Morty after Justin Roiland
Justin Roiland voiced both Rick and Morty from the start of the series. In January 2023, Adult Swim ended its association with him. Season 6 had already finished airing in December 2022, so the change reached viewers only with the next season. Roiland remains credited on the show.
Ian Cardoni took over as Rick and Harry Belden as Morty. Both were revealed on the season 7 premiere night, October 15, 2023, and introduced as previously unknown performers. Cardoni was cast first, partly because of his Rick impression, and Belden was cast later. The change also reached other characters Roiland had voiced: Jon Allen replaced him as Mr. Poopybutthole, and starting with "Rise of the Numbericons: The Movie", the rapper Ice-T voices Magma-Q.
The rest of the principal cast did not change. Chris Parnell remains Jerry, Spencer Grammer is Summer and Sarah Chalke is Beth. For a viewer deciding where to begin, the recast does not create a continuity break; seasons 7, 8 and 9 follow on from season 6 without a reset. Anyone who prefers the original voices has seasons 1 through 6, which together make up 61 of the 91 episodes.
Specials, shorts and spin-offs
Outside the numbered seasons, Adult Swim has released several extras. Five anime short films aired between March 2020 and November 2021: "Samurai & Shogun", "Rick and Morty vs. Genocider", "Summer Meets God (Rick Meets Evil)", "The Great Yokai Battle of Akihabara" and "Samurai and Shogun Part 2". A series built on them, Rick and Morty: The Anime, was announced with Takashi Sano as director.
The Non-Canonical Adventures are 36 claymation webisodes released in three batches: sixteen between October 2016 and July 2017, ten on November 1, 2019, and ten on January 1, 2021. Each is a film parody, from "The Thing" and "Aliens" to "Home Alone" and "Pulp Fiction". Other web releases include "Bushworld Adventures" (April 1, 2018), "Rick + Morty in the Eternal Nightmare Machine" (April 30, 2021) and "Summer's Sleepover" (October 31, 2022).
Two spin-offs carry the characters further. The Vindicators, a superhero team featured in the season 3 episode "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", got a ten-episode web series, Vindicators 2, in 2022. President Curtis was announced on July 25, 2025 and is listed on Wikipedia as an animated series from 2026. None of these are required viewing for the main story.
The show has also reached tabletop pinball. Spooky Pinball released a Rick and Morty machine in 2020, a run of 750 units according to Wikipedia's company page. The seasons above remain the best way into the show, and the site's pinball guide covers how the hobby behind that machine works.
The episodes that matter when time is short
These eight carry the most weight if only part of the series is on the schedule. Titles, seasons and numbers follow the Wikipedia episode list.
- Season 1, episode 1, "Pilot": the premise, the family and the show's tone in a single half hour.
- Season 1, episode 6, "Rick Potion #9": an early story that shows the show can turn a joke into something serious.
- Season 2, episode 4, "Total Rickall": a standalone episode that works with no background at all.
- Season 2, episode 8, "Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate": the sketch-style episode people mean when they mention interdimensional cable.
- Season 3, episode 3, "Pickle Rick": the 2018 Primetime Emmy winner for Outstanding Animated Program.
- Season 4, episode 8, "The Vat of Acid Episode": the 2020 Primetime Emmy winner for Outstanding Animated Program.
- Season 5, episode 10, "Rickmurai Jack": the season 5 finale, best seen with the earlier seasons behind it.
- Season 9, episode 1, "There's Something About Morty": the premiere of the latest season and a 2026 Emmy nominee.
Reading on Rick and Morty
0 takesRough Cut Review's other pages on the series go deeper into single episodes and seasons than this guide does.
Frequently asked questions about Rick and Morty
How many seasons of Rick and Morty are there?
Nine. Rick and Morty has aired nine seasons on Adult Swim, from December 2, 2013 to July 26, 2026. The series has been renewed through season 12, so more are planned.
How many episodes does Rick and Morty have?
91. Season 1 has 11 episodes, and seasons 2 through 9 have 10 each. That count leaves out the anime shorts, the claymation webisodes and the Vindicators 2 web series.
Is there a Rick and Morty season 10?
It is part of the renewal, but no premiere date has been announced. Adult Swim renewed the show in October 2024 for two more seasons, through season 12, with 20 more episodes. Season 9 is the latest to have aired.
When did Rick and Morty season 9 air?
Season 9 premiered on May 24, 2026 and ended on July 26, 2026. It has ten episodes, starting with "There's Something About Morty" and ending with "Field of Dreams".
Who voices Rick and Morty now?
Ian Cardoni voices Rick and Harry Belden voices Morty. They replaced Justin Roiland starting with season 7, which premiered on October 15, 2023. Jon Allen replaced Roiland as Mr. Poopybutthole.
Why did the voice actors change?
Adult Swim ended its association with Justin Roiland in January 2023, and the lead roles were recast for season 7. Roiland remains credited on the show. The new actors were introduced on the season 7 premiere night.
Where should I start with Rick and Morty?
Start with the pilot and watch in broadcast order. The show is mostly made of self-contained episodes, so a viewer can also start with "Pickle Rick" in season 3 or "Total Rickall" in season 2 and go back.
Why was there a long gap between season 3 and season 4?
Season 3 ended on October 1, 2017 and season 4 premiered on November 10, 2019, a gap of just over two years. Wikipedia records a 70-episode order that Adult Swim announced in 2018, and lists 40 of those episodes in seasons 4 through 7, but it gives no stated reason for the gap, so none is offered here.
Did Rick and Morty win an Emmy?
Yes, twice. It won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program in 2018 for "Pickle Rick" and in 2020 for "The Vat of Acid Episode". It was also nominated for "Mort Dinner Rick Andre", "Night Family" and "There's Something About Morty" in later years.
What was the unannounced Rick and Morty premiere?
Season 3 began on April 1, 2017, when "The Rickshank Rickdemption" aired without advance notice as an April Fools' Day surprise. The other nine episodes began airing weekly on July 30, 2017.
Is there a Rick and Morty anime?
Yes, in two forms. Five anime short films aired between March 2020 and November 2021. A full series, Rick and Morty: The Anime, was announced with Takashi Sano as director.
Is there a Rick and Morty pinball machine?
Yes. Spooky Pinball released one in 2020, a production run of 750 machines according to Wikipedia. The site's pinball guide explains how Spooky and other makers fit into the hobby.
Where can Rick and Morty be watched?
Adult Swim's own Rick and Morty page lists episodes and clips, with some content behind a cable-provider login, plus a free marathon channel. Availability on streaming services varies by country and changes often, so check the service directly.