Three years ago, the co-creator of Rick And Morty (and voice of both Rick And Morty) Justin Roiland, started tweeting a bunch of concept art for a new sci-fi animated comedy called Solar Opposites he said was in development with 20th Century Fox.
At the time, Rick And Morty writer and co-creator of the new series, Mike McMahan, was quite incensed with Roiland, who he didn’t want sharing this stuff. It wasn’t final art and Roiland was breaking the rules of TV show pitching, McMahan protested. “Get with it you rocking pig!” replied Roiland, in an iMessage screenshot.
Nothing else was heard about the show after that, until now. The series, still titled Solar Opposites, has now been picked up for a 16-episode order on Hulu (via Deadline). It’s going to be a sitcom about an alien family who leave their world and settle in middle America.
There’s not much more info on the series yet. Writing on it won’t even start until October. We do know so far that Roiland, not unexpectedly, will play two roles: Terry and Korvo. Sean Giambrone (The Goldbergs and, erm, The Emoji Movie) will voice Yumyulack. Mary Mack (a comedian who voiced Dylan in the first season of Golan The Insatiable, for those of you who’ve seen that) will be the voice of Jesse.
There’s not yet any new information on the characters or series’ premise, so there’s no telling how different everything will be compared to Roiland’s initial tweets about the series. However, it is interesting to note that the character names haven’t changed.
Another animated sci-fi comedy from two Rick And Morty alums to air while 70 new episodes of Rick And Morty are still on the way might seem a little redundant. However, I feel the apparent absence of Rick And Morty co-creator Dan Harmon on this project will be very significant. Harmon is the conventional sitcom plotter who provides structure to Roiland’s gross and disturbing madness, so it’s probably fair to say the mix of these two guys’ creative sensibilities will result in quite a different product.
When will Solar Opposites premiere? Who the hell knows! It took three freaking years just for someone to pick the damn thing up!