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Earlier this year, Rick and Morty creator Justin Roiland’s career imploded before his eyes following reports of an alleged domestic violence incident in 2020 and several allegations of sexual misconduct.
Roiland, 42 years old, has not only been removed from series such as Rick and Morty (Adult Swim) and Solar Opposites (Hulu) but he’s also lost his overall deal with Disney’s 20th Television Animation.
According to reports, Roiland faced two felony charges in Orange County due to an alleged domestic violence incident with a woman he was dating back in 2020.
Then, an anonymous Twitter user shared alleged DMs that Roiland allegedly sent her when she was just a minor.
“Can you write a song about 9 d***s of different sized and ethnic origins hanging above your face, and then in the lyrics describe how they each splatter you with s***n,” one of the alleged messages said.
“You should just run away from home and go into sex slavery YOU FUCKING STUPID F****T BITCH (!!!) (Jk),” read another.
Now, according to a report from THR, while the collapse of Roiland’s career may have come as a shock to fans, colleagues say his behavior “has been troubling for years.”
There are sexual misconduct-related allegations, such as Roiland allegedly bringing an adult film star into the office:
According to multiple sources, who would speak only on the condition of anonymity, Roiland once paraded a high-profile adult film star through the Rick and Morty writers’ room, openly discussed threesomes and was involved in at least one instance of alleged sexual harassment during the show’s third season, notably its first with female writers.
Roiland’s in-office behavior resulted in Cartoon Network conducting an internal investigation.
The allegations against Roiland also suggest that he hasn’t had a true creative influence in any of his recent series, including Rick and Morty:
More recently, multiple sources say that Roiland, other than voice work, has not had any meaningful creative presence on any of the series that bear his name. In fact, many of his former colleagues say they haven’t heard from him in years, and when they have, it’s been unpleasant.
Roiland also reportedly had a falling out with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon:
They note, too, that he hasn’t been on speaking terms with his Rick and Morty co-creator, Dan Harmon, for multiple seasons, and a substantial number of staffers on that show as well as Solar Opposites and Koala Man have never actually met Roiland, even over Zoom.
Despite the removal of Roiland, all signs point to his various series continuing with new actors playing the voice roles he has been fired from. Roland’s most recent series, the Hugh Jackman-starring Koala Man, just premiered on Hulu earlier this year.
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