'Rick and Morty' Creator Says He Doesn’t Get a Cut from Szechuan Sauce Profits
He didn't get a dime.
When McDonald’s decided to bring back its Szechuan Sauce to capitalize on the sauce’s appearance in the Rick and Morty Season 3 premiere, it didn’t go over well. A rumor circulated among the show’s fans that co-creator Dan Harmon was getting a piece of the profits from the sauce and that could not be further from the truth.
At the Tribeca Film Festival, Vulture asked Harmon about the rumor that he secured a deal with McDonald’s netting him some of the profits from the Szechuan Sauce sales. With a mouth agape, the show co-creator gave a clear “No” and was genuinely surprised the rumor even existed. He explained not only is the supposed deal false, but the show staff didn’t even ask McDonald’s to use the discontinued chicken McNuggets sauce in the Rick and Morty Season 3 episode, “The Rickshank Rickdemption.”
“We didn’t ask for their permission to put food in our cartoon,” Harmon said. “It was mutual. Then they were like hey, come get the… it’s weird to get mugged by McDonald’s. Kind of an honor. I wouldn’t wish that show’s fans on any fast food restaurant.”
The fast-food chain re-released the Szechuan Sauce last October in limited quantities. Rick and Morty fans lined up at their local McDonald’s to find out each store only had a handful of sauce packets. This sauce drought caused quite a bit of outrage among the fans who were determined to have the sauce after it was focused upon so much in the Season 3 premiere episode. In February, McDonald’s did a second run of Szechuan Sauce with 20 million cups made available to restaurants.
Harmon was at the Tribeca Film Festival to discuss his acting role in the pithy-titled moved Seven Stages to Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through the Gateway Chosen By the Holy Storsh. A comedy directed by Vivieno Caldinelli, the movie is about, “a small-town couple [who] find the perfect apartment in the big city, except there’s one catch: the apartment is home to the ritualistic suicides of a deranged cult.”
It makes sense Harmon would do an acting role as Rick and Morty Season 4 is still not in production.
