Rick and Morty Season 7’s Biggest Surprise Isn’t Just the New Voices

With just a few short weeks until Rick and Morty returns, Adult Swim has dropped a new trailer for season 7, giving us a hint at the hijinks to come and our first look at the new voice actors replacing Justin Roiland as the titular characters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Adult Swim is keeping the identity of these actors a secret until the premiere, because they “want the show to speak for itself.” Even though they “believe in the strength of the season and [the show’s] new voices” they want to “preserve the viewing experience for fans.”

Rick and Morty and Adult Swim parted ways with Roiland at the beginning of this year after he had felony domestic abuse charges filed against him. Those charges have since been dismissed, though Roiland has also been accused of sexual assault and direct messaging underage fans. But even though Roiland was credited as co-creator of Rick and Morty and voiced the two lead roles, it seems like the show will be just fine without him. Not only is there a barely noticeable difference between the new voice actors and Roiland, but according to many writers for the show, it’s been years since he offered anything meaningful to the writers’ room.

However, as big as this change in voice actors may be for longtime fans of the show, it’s not the only big surprise that can be found in the trailer. Longtime friend of the Sanchez-Smith family, Mr. Poopybutthole, can be seen sitting beside Rick while getting his face shoved into a cupcake by the waiter of a restaurant/bar called “F.U.’s.” Based on the episode titles released for this season, it’s likely that this scene is from the season premiere titled “How Poopy Got His Poop Back.” 

The last time we saw our good pal Mr. Poopybutthole, he was in his revenge era. In the season six finale “Ricktional Mortpoon’s Rickmas Mortcation,” Mr. Poopybutthole is trying to rebound from his divorce by working out a lot. He and Rick have been on the outs ever since Rick recruited him for his heist in season 4 and caused him to lose his job. Mr. Poopybutthole’s relationship with his wife collapsed soonafter in season 5, and saw him contemplate turning against Rick to make him pay for ruining his life. 

But despite becoming jacked, Mr. Poopybutthole injured himself at the end of season 6, seemingly delaying any plans of revenge and pushing him to reach back out to his wife. The description of the season 7 premiere is  “Broh come out with us, you’re being so boring dude,” and based on the small snippet from the trailer it seems like Mr. Poopybutthole has healed and is once again trying to give Rick a chance. Will we see an apology from Rick? I wouldn’t bet on it. But hopefully the two can find another way to reconcile their friendship.

Another intriguing element introduced in the season 7 trailer is Rick’s Famous Spaghetti. Again, based on the episode titles, it seems like this will be an important part of the fourth episode “That’s Amorte,” which features the description “Broh, that’s-a some good spaghetti.” The trailer shows an eerily eager Rick serving this signature dish to Jerry and Morty, who can’t seem to get enough of the stuff. But even though we may not get any insight into this mysterious dish and its importance until episode 4, the marketing for this season implies that this may not be the only time we get to see the Sanchez-Smith family bond over pasta as spaghetti and meatballs can be seen floating around at the end of the trailer, and also cover Rick and Morty in the key art released for the season.

No matter whether Rick’s Famous Spaghetti is actually important or just an elaborate prank played on us by the writers, it will be interesting to see how this season unfolds.

Rick and Morty season 7 premieres Oct. 15 at 11 p.m. ET on Adult Swim.