"The design of Rick and Morty, because it's animated, is to be eternal."
That is Dan Harmon, speaking at Annecy Festival this week, and he means it. The showrunner went further, framing the goal plainly: 100 years of Rick and Morty. No graceful exit planned. No series finale in the drawer. The show runs until someone physically removes him from the building.
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Why Harmon is rejecting the Seinfeld model
Harmon made a pointed distinction between what Rick and Morty is and what prestige television tends to reward. Shows like Seinfeld took a bow, wrapped cleanly, and got credit for knowing when to stop. Harmon does not think that mentality applies to 22-minute animated comedy.
"I think our job is to get dragged off kicking and screaming," he said at the panel. "If Michael fires us, he'll give us a heads-up so we'll be able to make it our last season. Until then, I think our job is 100 years of Rick and Morty. The show must go on until we all get replaced with AI."
Here's the thing: that is not just bluster. The Simpsons is currently past its 35th year. South Park is still producing new content after nearly three decades. Harmon is explicitly placing Rick and Morty in that category, and Adult Swim president Michael Ouweleen is backing that framing.
Adult Swim's long-game strategy
Ouweleen, speaking at the same Annecy event, described his programming philosophy as a portfolio play. He wants a mix of tones and creators, but long-running shows are central to that approach. His position on Rick and Morty specifically is that the team keeps the material fresh rather than repeating themselves, which is the only real condition he cares about.
"When the creators get too tired to keep going, you say, 'OK, I'm not going to force you to make a cartoon,'" Ouweleen said. "You say, 'Take a break. What's next?'"
This is Adult Swim's 25th anniversary year, and the network is leaning into its identity as a home for long-term creator relationships. Genndy Tartakovsky has made multiple shows there. Joe Pera returned for a second project after Joe Pera Talks With You. The pattern is deliberate.
Season 12 already in production, spinoff arriving this month
The timing of this declaration matters. Rick and Morty is currently airing season 9. Executive producer Monica Mitchell confirmed at Annecy that season 12 is already in production, meaning the pipeline stretches at least three seasons ahead. The show is not winding down. It is accelerating.
The first Rick and Morty spinoff, President Curtis, premieres in July. That expansion into spinoff territory is another signal that Adult Swim is treating Rick and Morty less like a finite series and more like a franchise with room to grow outward.
For fans who have been playing games inspired by the show's anarchic sci-fi tone, or anyone who tracks long-running animated universes, this kind of institutional commitment is notable. The gap between seasons has historically frustrated the fanbase, but with season 12 already underway, that cadence appears to be tightening.
What this means for the show's future
What most players in the animation space miss is how rare this kind of explicit, open-ended commitment actually is. Networks rarely say out loud that a show has no planned endpoint. Harmon is saying it, Ouweleen is endorsing it, and the production slate backs it up.
The key here is that "eternal" is not just a creative aspiration. It is a business model. The Simpsons and South Park generate licensing, merchandise, and cultural relevance decades after their peaks. Adult Swim clearly wants Rick and Morty in that tier.
Whether the writing stays sharp enough to justify that ambition is a separate question. But the infrastructure is being built for a very long run. If you want to keep up with everything happening in animation and gaming culture, the gaming guides hub is a good place to track adjacent releases and tie-ins as the Rick and Morty universe expands.
For a sense of how long-form entertainment experiences are being designed right now, the Paralives aging, death, and lifespan guide is an interesting parallel: games and shows alike are increasingly being built with the idea that players and viewers will stick around for the very long haul.
Season 9 is airing now. Season 12 is in production. And Harmon is not planning an exit. Keep watching.
