What Is Rick and Morty’s Connection to the MCU?
Last night, on June 20th, 2021, the first episode of Rick and Morty season five was released on Adult Swim. While you might not realize it, the season premiere is a little closer to the Marvel Cinematic Universe than certain Jerrys would be perfectly comfortable with! Well, sorry about ya Jerrys, but the Rick and Morty/MCU connection is the subject of this very special Marvel Blog report celebrating the premiere of Rick and Mr. Namor… I mean, Mr. Nimbus.
Catch this awesome monster (and these five humans/robots) on the season five premiere of Rick & Morty. Photo: Adult Swim
Buckle into your spaceship made of garbage and grab your Szechuan sauce, Marvel Blog True Believers: we’re taking a portal to the weirdest corners of the MCU!
Dan Harmon Controls the Police MCU
First of all, Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon (who voices Rick’s nemesis, Mr. Nimbus, in season five) has been working with some of the biggest names in the MCU since well before they were a part of the MCU!
Harmon IS Iron Man. Photo: Getty Images
In part, this is thanks to Community. The sitcom ran for five six seasons, and it gave Harmon a chance to work with Joe and Anthony Russo, who would go on to direct Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
Plus, plenty of the actors on Community have now appeared in the MCU (or directed episodes of Marvel’s 616 on Disney+).
Gillian Jacobs played Britta Perry on Community and directed an episode of Marvel’s 616 on Disney+. Photo: Disney+.
Harmon himself also worked on the script for 2016’s Doctor Strange. Although many of his jokes were cut from the final script (apparently), it’s probably why Rick references that movie in the season four Rick and Morty episode “One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty.”
Rick’s coat rips off Dr. Strange’s cape. Image: Adult Swim.
Fun fact: fellow Rick and Morty writer Michael Waldron not only served as the head writer and executive producer for Loki, he’s also the writer for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, coming to theaters in 2022.
Quantumania
The Doctor Strange connection isn’t the only MCU reference in the fourth season of Rick and Morty.
The Vat of Acid Episode references a few other things, like the time-traveling device in the final (?) episode of Futurama. Photo: 30th Century Fox
In “The Vat of Acid Episode,” Rick makes a reference to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This is because Jeff Loveness, who wrote this episode, is also the writer for Quantumania.
Rick and Morty is back. I wrote tonight's episode. It is all that I am. 90's X-Men. Frasier. A horny ocean Emperor. The life of time. The way we fail our mothers. https://t.co/loyK0MpXhs
— Jeff Loveness (@JeffLoveness) June 20, 2021
However, that isn’t the only thing Loveness wrote for Adult Swim: he also wrote the Rick and Morty season five premiere, “Mort Dinner Rick Andre.”
Danny Pudi‘s Dinner with Captain America. Photo: Marvel Studios
In “Mort Dinner Rick Andre,” the episode features a reference to Blade in the first few minutes, a character who is very similar to Namor, and on top of that, a subplot that incorporates differing rates of the passage of time in order to tell a compelling story.
Photo: Adult Swim
In other words, Loveness is exactly the kind of person you want to be writing the next Ant-Man and the Wasp movie about dimension hopping!
Even More Connections
These aren’t the only connections between the MCU and Rick and Morty! However, because there are more cameos and references than we can name without the help of a ghost train, here’s a couple more of Marvel Blog’s favorite connections between the two universes.
To start, another example of a Rick and Morty/MCU connection is Jessica Gao. The former Rick and Morty writer is now working on the script for the upcoming She-Hulk series on Disney+!
Gao winning the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for “Pickle Rick” in 2018. Photo: Variety
And, we haven’t even started connecting the dots between the Rick and Morty actors and the MCU yet. Did someone say Miss Minutes, A.K.A voice actor Tara Strong? The prolific actor has voiced more than one character on the Adult Swim show, including a disguised version of Morty (fun detail: she was originally in consideration for the Morty Prime voice).
Strong as Morty behind the mask in Never Ricking Morty. Photo: Adult Swim
Have you had a chance to see the new Rick and Morty episode? Which Rick and Morty writer do you hope gets to write a MCU movie next and why is it Grace Freud? Let us know what you think in the comment section, Marvel Blog True Believers!
No More Jerrys in Rick and Morty Presents: Jerryboree #1, in part by Grace Freud. Photo: BOOM!
