Rick and Morty's cast on Season 5 and 6, character growth, and Rick's new nemesis

Adult Swim’s Rick & Morty panel--not for Comic-Con@Home, but rather Adult Swim Con--was lacking the voice and creator of the titular, Justin Roiland, but saw co-creator Dan Harmon take to Zoom with Sarah Chalke (Beth), Chris Parnell (Jerry), and Spencer Grammer (Summer). And surprise surprise, without the duo bickering and getting them into trouble, the Sanchez family not only can laugh together, but be introspective!

Specifically, Grammer, Chalke, and Parnell took to noting how their characters developed over season 4 and the show’s entire run thus far. In Harmon’s estimation, it’s Grammer who’s had “the most distance traveled” as Summer. He admitted the writers had no clue that she’d go from being Morty’s sister to “a competitor in the adventure market,” and it didn’t fully become clear until the finale of season one. By far, the most recent growth has come from Beth; Chalke’s found it fun to play both Beth the Mother and the Clone Beth who showed up during the season finale. Don’t expect any solid confirmation on which is the real Beth, though; like Rick himself, Harmon and the writers don’t know. Not that it matters, since as Chalke later added, if the Beths say they don’t care which is the original, then they mean it.

In the case of everyone’s lovable sad sack Jerry, who’s gone from being a punching bag of the family to being...well, still a punching bag, but one who punches back. In fact, Parnell and Harmon both found it interesting how in their own way, Rick and Jerry have become friends ever since the season three episode that saw them in a theme park where you can’t die. (In typical fashion, that quickly takes a grim turn.) Don’t worry about that friendship possibly ruining the show’s dynamic; Harmon thinks it works because we’ve all got friends we treat like garbage. 

Though Harmon and company didn’t reveal any hard information about the fifth season like a trailer or release date, they did reveal an interesting bit of information. Namely, that Rick has a nemesis named Mr. Nimbus, who our scientist is quite ashamed of. Check it out in the cold open for an upcoming episode. It even has the duo as “Blades,” like the vampire hunter--and in Rick’s words, it’s pretty tight!

Rick & Morty’s fifth season will premiere...when it does, really. Per Harmon’s words, the finale is the only episode left of the season to work on, from an animation perspective, and the writers are already working on season six. So it shouldn’t be long now!

Click here for SYFY WIRE's full coverage of Comic-Con@Home 2020.