Rick and Morty Facing Justin Roiland Problem at Annecy Festival?

Running from June 11th to 17th, the Annecy International Animation Film Festival sees over 13,000 animation professionals from all around the world take part in the French festival. Over the course of the week, attendees will take part in screenings, panel presentations, previews & announcements of projects on the horizon, and more. So what does this have to do with Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty? Well, the Emmy-winning animated series from Dan Harmon & Justin Roiland is the topic of one of Warner Bros.’s two presentations during the festival (with a look at The Lord of the Rings: The War of Rohirrim from Kenji Kamiyama being the other). Titled “‘Rick and Morty’: 10 Years of Intergalactic Adventures,” it appears to be a documentary honoring the animated series’ first ten years. But then again, it could also be the title for an Annecy panel – or maybe it’s just the title for a panel. Whatever the case may be, the show being on the festival’s line-up raises a lot of questions – and they all lead back to Roiland.

Back in March, we learned that two months after Adult Swim, Squanch Games, Disney & 20th TV Animation cut ties with Roiland, domestic violence charges against him were dismissed “as a result of having insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Since that time, things have been understandably quiet on everyone’s fronts – in fact, we even asked at the time what this would mean for Roiland and those projects moving forward. When it comes to Rick and Morty, those answers now come with an expiration date for answers before all parties lose the ability to control the narrative. If it’s a doc, then how much is Roiland in it? Have there been edits to it over the course of how events played out? Will Roiland be at Annecy for the presentation? If not, then who’s willing to step up to be public relations sacrificial lambs? They should know going in that the press will be peppering them with Roiland-related questions non-stop. Could there be pushback from the show’s team over having Roiland return as the face of the series? With charges dismissed, it’s hard to know where Roiland stands when it comes to returning to the Adult Swim series without knowing the terms of his contract. And the last situation that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to find itself in is on the international stage, spending press time answering questions about how the company handled the series co-creator.