Rick and Morty has been a fixture on Adult Swim for over a decade now, but the series is looking to go bigger and better than ever on the big screen. Creator Dan Harmon is still working out the details, but he knows what iconic film franchise will serve as his guiding light. Collider’s Steve Weintraub sat down with Cartoon Network president Michael Ouweleen at the Annecy International Film Festival to get a peek at Harmon’s thought process in bringing the title duo to movie theaters.
While Ouweleen couldn’t reveal much about the movie, which is now in development, we know Harmon is working on it alongside Rick and Morty, which will kick off its ninth season next month, and the new spin-off, President Curtis, starring Keith David, which will debut later this year. For the series’ first trip to the big screen, Harmon is taking inspiration from a classic Steven Spielberg franchise, often seen as the high-water mark for on-screen high adventure:
“These guys understand story and adventure better than anybody. What Dan would want to do with the Rick and Morty movie is that he indelibly remembers going to see the Indiana Jones movies, so he’s solving for that feeling of walking out. He’s like, ‘I want to replicate the feeling of walking out and hitting the sidewalk having just seen an Indiana Jones.’ And you know he holds himself to a high bar, so that’s the bar he’s holding himself to on that thing.”
Ouweleen insists that the movie will be enjoyable for diehards and newcomers alike, as he asserts that “you won’t have to have studied Rick and Morty.” He couldn’t shed any light on a possible title when asked, saying, “Oh, God, no.”
Collider Exclusive · Universe Personality Quiz Which Iconic Universe Do You Belong in the Most? Star Wars · Lord of the Rings · Harry Potter · Game of Thrones · Star Trek
Five legendary universes. Five completely different visions of what the world could be — or already was. One of them is the world your instincts, your values, and your particular way of existing were built for. Eight questions will tell you which one.
🚀Star Wars
💍Lord of the Rings
🧙Harry Potter
👑Game of Thrones
🖖Star Trek
01
What gives your life its deepest sense of meaning? Every universe is built around a different answer to this question.
02
Which kind of world do you most want to inhabit? The environment shapes who you become. Choose carefully.
03
How do you prefer your conflicts resolved? The shape of a world’s conflicts tells you everything about its soul.
04
Who do you want beside you when things get difficult? Your ideal companions reveal the world you were made for.
05
What is your relationship with power? How you seek, wield, or resist power is the map of who you are.
06
How does your universe treat good and evil? A world’s moral architecture tells you more about it than any map.
07
What role would you naturally fall into? Every universe has archetypes. Which one fits you without trying?
08
What do you ultimately believe about the future? The answer to this is the clearest window into which universe already lives inside you.
Your Universe Has Been Chosen You Belong In…
Your answers point to the iconic universe your values, your instincts, and your particular way of seeing the world were built for. This is where you would find your people — and your purpose.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
You believe in the cause — in the idea that freedom is worth fighting for even when the odds are impossible and the empire is vast.
You are drawn to the moral clarity of a universe where hope itself is a form of resistance.
You’d find your people in the Rebellion — a ragtag coalition of true believers held together by conviction more than resources.
Star Wars is fundamentally a story about ordinary people choosing to matter in an extraordinary conflict — and that is exactly your kind of story.
The Force may or may not be with you. But the will to use it for something larger than yourself certainly is.
Middle-earth
Lord of the Rings
You understand, in the deepest part of yourself, that the journey matters as much as the destination — and that the world’s beauty is worth protecting even at great cost.
Middle-earth is a world of ancient wonder, deep friendship, and a darkness that only retreats when enough small acts of courage accumulate.
You would thrive here because you value the fellowship more than the glory — the road more than the arrival.
Tolkien’s universe rewards patience, loyalty, and the willingness to carry something heavy across a very long distance.
Those are not burdens to you. They are simply how you move through the world.
The Wizarding World
Harry Potter
You believe that love, loyalty, and doing what’s right are not naive sentiments — they are the most powerful forces in any world, magical or otherwise.
The Wizarding World is a place of wonder hidden in plain sight, where learning is transformative and the bonds you form at school follow you into every battle.
You would flourish here because you take both the magic and the friendships seriously — and you understand that one without the other is incomplete.
Harry Potter’s universe ultimately rewards those who choose to stand for something even when standing is terrifying.
That choice — made quietly, without guarantee — is something you understand completely.
Westeros · The Known World
Game of Thrones
You see the world clearly — its power structures, its hypocrisies, its brutal arithmetic — and you are not paralysed by that clarity. You use it.
Westeros is a world that rewards intelligence, adaptability, and the willingness to understand that every alliance is also a negotiation.
You would survive here — possibly thrive here — because you don’t confuse the world as it is with the world as you’d like it to be.
Game of Thrones is a story about what happens when the idealists and the realists collide. You are sharp enough to know which one lasts longer.
Winter always comes. You are already prepared.
The United Federation of Planets
Star Trek
You believe the future is worth building — that curiosity, cooperation, and the expansion of understanding are not just ideals but the most practical path forward for any civilisation.
Star Trek is a universe where the questions matter as much as the answers, and where encountering something utterly alien is cause for wonder rather than fear.
You would belong here because you are fundamentally optimistic about what intelligence and decency can achieve — while being honest about how hard that achievement is.
The Federation is the universe’s most ambitious thought experiment: what if we actually got better?
You don’t just hope that’s possible. You think it’s the only thing worth working toward.
What Is ‘Rick and Morty’ About?
The series was created by Harmon and Justin Roiland in 2013 as a twisted take on the Doc Brown-Marty McFly dynamic fromBack to the Future. Rick Sanchez is an alcoholic, nihilistic super-scientist who’s devised devices to travel through space and time, and Morty is his neurotic teenage grandson; together, they travel the multiverse and have wild adventures, whether Morty likes it or not (and he usually doesn’t). Occasionally, other members of the family get involved, including Rick’s daughter and Morty’s mom, Beth (Sarah Chalke); her hapless husband, Jerry (Chris Parnell); and Morty’s hedonistic sister, Summer (Spencer Grammer). The two title characters were initially voiced by Roiland, but Adult Swim cut ties with him in 2023 after allegations of domestic abuse surfaced, and he was replaced as Rick and Morty by, respectively, Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden.
Rick and Morty won’t be the first Adult Swim show to hit theaters. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, a spin-off of the long-running surreal comedy series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, made its theatrical debut in 2007; its premiere was overshadowed by a promotional campaign that inadvertently caused a bomb scare in Boston.
A Rick and Morty movie is in development; no release date has yet been announced. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
