Dan Harmon Explains Why 'Rick and Morty' Season 3 Is So Delayed

Perhaps because Rick and Morty fans fall all over themselves at any mention of the show’s ridiculously anticipated third season, the series’s co-creator Dan Harmon has taken pity on you nerds. Harmon, a self-admitted hot head with a biting sense of humor, took to Twitter on Saturday to post “a hungover thread” that ended up consisting of 26 tweets explaining why, exactly, it’s taking so long to get the third season out the door at Adult Swim.

As Harmon points out, the truth is a lot more boring than most fans might anticipate.

A hungover thread where I address Rick and Morty devotees because I feel bad for any fan worrying about any show-threatening issue: Justin and I are very regretful about the season taking way too long. I want to explain “what happened because it’s way less dramatic than you might ever imagine. Post internet TV audiences are so used to finding out there’s an intriguing/confusing/intense reason 4 delays and Christ knows if you’ve ever seen MY name on the internet I’ve only got myself to blame for an association with intrigue/confusion/drama. But the truth in this case is so very boring. I will put it to you as objectively as I can, though we aren’t talking about an auto plant.

The reason S3 took so long is because it took long to write, because it was S3 of a show that we were scared to make worse than S2 or S1. It’s a common yet odd phenomenon. Tail-chasing, perfectionism, overthinking? One prob is that any description you pick for it is going to have a falseness. If I say “we overthought” someone else could say “well, no, we thought the right amount,” it’s like talking about religion or something. It feels I think, to writers, sacreligious and ineffective to open the creative process and poke and label. But don’t worry about the content, because, the reason overthought slows you down is, you just do way more versions of stuff than needed. You usually end up back where you started. So as far as I can tell, although I’m too close to it, it’s just another good season of RAM that took way too fucking long to write because it just seems like the same stuff that took way less time to write. That’s it. Boring answer.

As I speak, more articles are coming out about me and Justin [fighting]. Because it’s a less boring reason for a season to take long, and because I’m Dan Harmon, so it’s a smart fucking first guess, it just happens to be hilariously not true even in the slightest. If you do know of me at all you know that if Justin and I HAD ever fought, not only wouldn’t we be able to keep it secret, we’d be all too eager to share it with you. Also, that’s not what would make the show slow down! Fighting probably would have been a good idea, it might have sped us up. So that’s it. I shouldn’t have started a thread when I need to pack for airport, but that’s it. We took too long writing. Totes regrets.

And we look back and we talk to each other about how we can avoid it happening again and I’m pretty sure the reason it won’t is cuz it happened. That’s how it works. You do something you don’t know you’re doing and then you’re like oh I did that and then you do otherwise. I don’t know if any danger to the show itself that comes from you believing justin and I are fighting and the show is gone forever, BUT like I said it breaks my heart to think of some kid reading one of these clickbait pieces after all the energy the kid has put into fandom. The show by my metric, which is people seeing my tee shirts and saying “I love that show” has like the craziest reach of anything I’ve been a part of. So.. it makes sense that when you take something that loved and delay it this long and let the internet simmer, you get this stuff and we’re flattered by it and thankful to you and can’t wait for you to see S3 and also JUSTIN IS A PIECE OF SHIT I’M GOING TO FIST FIGHT. End of threaddddddd so hungover.

Despite all of this, Rick and Morty Season 3 still does not have an official release date, but it is expected sometime this summer. There’s a special live stream on June 29, so maybe we’ll learn more then — or, gasp, even see a new episode.

Here’s everything we know about Rick and Morty Season 3.