Rick and Morty season 5: All you need to know before the adventures begin

It’s time to get schwifty and gear up for the fifth season of Rick and Morty! The creators of the show have successfully bamboozled fans with surprise episode drops, mind-blowingly bizarre plotlines and uncertain gaps between episodes and even seasons. Hopefully ending this streak is the fifth season, premiering just over a year after season 4 ended. To add to the excitement is Rick and Morty Day, a ‘new multiverse holiday’ that is being celebrated by the US cable network, Adult Swim.

The last we saw of Rick and Morty was in season 4, where the creators took a four-month break right in the middle of the seasons, leaving fans yearning. Ten episodes of season 4 tied multiple loose ends together, discussed Morty’s ambitions for the first time and featured plenty of violence, gore and wry Rick humour as usual. With the newest trailer of the fifth season releasing recently, we’ve got just enough to work with to know what fans should expect from season 5 which is releasing on June 20. Here’s all you need to know.

What adventures will Rick and Morty be up to this season?

Adventures in Rick and Morty always end up being the opposite of what the audience thinks they’re going to be like. Thus, we can only take what the trailers show at face value. The two trailers featured Rick, Morty, Summer, Beth and even Jerry embarking on adventures, including an episode where they each get to control their own Voltron-style robots.

This will be the first time the whole family will be involved in one of Rick’s adventures. There’s also a glimpse of a kaiju monster that they are fighting. They are also expected to get knocked out with poison darts at some point in the show. Rick, being Rick, will also perform brain surgery on himself. As always, the show promises a fusion of sci-fi tropes and pop culture parodies.

Season 4 ended with a huge revelation - Rick had cloned his real daughter Beth for the version that he lives in his current universe with in order to let his real daughter live a more fulfilling life. It is possible that the show will explore more of this plot in the coming season.

Who’s returning and who’s not?

As far as the creators have revealed, the Rick and Morty season 5 cast remains the same in terms of the primary 5 characters. Popular fan theories that are circulating on Reddit speculate that ‘Space Beth’ will be returning to Rick’s home in his universe, Birdman might make an appearance again, and best of all - Evil Morty might take centre-stage in the new season.

How many episodes will season 5 have?

Rick and Morty has been renewed for 70 new episodes after season 4. Since the script for season 6 has already been written and season 7 is rumoured as well, season 5 is expected to have 10 episodes as is usual for Rick and Morty seasons. However, the intervals at which these episodes will be made available for streaming on Netflix by AdultSwim is not known.