Adult SwimGood news for Rick and Morty fans who aren’t fans of streaming services! The hilarious animated series is now coming to Channel 4.
The channel announced today (January 14), a new series of the Emmy award-winning show will premiere exclusively on Channel 4 in the UK, with season one-to-three being broadcast on E4 from February this year.
As well as Rick and Morty, a whole host of Adult Swim’s shows will be coming to the network this year. Wubbalubbadubdub!
Ian Katz, Channel 4 Director of Programmes, said:
Rick and Morty is one of the most anarchic, ingenious and original shows around and the breakthrough animated hit of recent years. I’m thrilled that it’s coming to Channel 4 and E4.
This is the first time ever the popular show will be available on free-to-air UK television. It comes as part of a partnership which will also see hundreds of hours of Adult Swim content being made available to stream for free on All 4, too.
The addition of Rick and Morty to Channel 4 will also be accompanied by the UK premier of Robot Chicken: The Walking Dead Special on E4.
Karl Warner, Controller E4 said:
Adult Swim’s amazing mix of original ideas and anarchic comedy is the perfect brand partner in E4’s evolution.
The additions to the UK channel will be the first of a regular ‘Adult Swim hour’ on E4, which will showcase episodes from various Adult Swim programmes, as well as full boxsets being available to stream on All 4.
Charlie Palmer, Managing Editor of All 4, said:
Adult Swim is a fantastic brand with a clear proposition and a devoted fan base. I’m delighted to have it join VICE and Walter Presents as a featured channel on All 4.
The free service will bring more than 300 episodes to its streaming platform at launch, with more being added over the next three years. Adult Swim will become its own ‘Featured Channel’ on All 4, alongside VICE and Walter Presents.
In a Channel 4 press release, Pierre Branco, SVP & GM, Northern Europe for Turner said:
We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Channel 4 to bring Adult Swim’s eclectic mix of weirdly wonderful and surreal shows to audiences here in the UK.
In this unique collaboration with Channel 4, we are creating a branded destination that will reach fans, new and old, across TV and VOD, building on the huge success of Adult Swim in the US.
In June last year, co-creator of Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland, confirmed he and Dan Harmon had started work on the highly-anticipated season four.
Speaking to Polygon, Roiland said:
We‘re super excited that, for the first time ever, we’re locked in, we know what the future is, we have job security.
Harmon is in great spirits, we have a great writer’s room. We want the episodes to stay good, but we do also want to try to turn them around a little quicker now that we have this big order, I think it gives us the ability to be faster.
We’re not going to do these long breaks, these chasms in between seasons anymore. We’re going to schedule vacation time and just keep the machine going. It’s going to be really cool.
Get Schwifty!
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.