Adult Swim has cut ties with Justin Roiland following news that the Rick and Morty co-creator was accused of domestic violence.
“Adult Swim has terminated its partnership with Justin Roiland,” Marie Moore, senior vice president of communications for Adult Swim/Cartoon Network/Boomerang, said Tuesday.
Roiland was one of the writers, executive producer, and voice actor of the successful Rick and Morty animated series, where the main characters speak in his voice. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Adult Swim hasn’t completed half of the show’s 70-episode order that Justin was supposed to be working on since 2018, when the series was renewed.
Sources say that “Rick and Morty” is going to continue, with Roiland’s voice roles being transferred to other actors. While Roiland will always be credited as the show’s co-creator, fellow writer Dan Harmon will now be the sole showrunner. At the moment, the show has continued until season 10.
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Roiland still has several ongoing projects with Hulu, including as a co-creator on the relatively new hit animated series Solar Opposites, where he also voices the title character (the show was renewed for a fifth season in October).
On Koala Man, which premiered on January 9, Justin is a voice actor and executive producer. His deal with 20th Television Animation, which produces Solar Opposites and Koala Man, is still up.
On January 12, NBC News broke the news that Roiland was charged with domestic violence with bodily harm and incarceration by threat, violence, fraud and deceit in Orange County, based on an incident believed to have taken place in 2020 against an unnamed Jane Doe, whom Justin dated. Roiland pleaded not guilty and was released on $50,000 bail in 2020. Several pre-trial hearings have already taken place, and Roiland is expected to return to court on April 27.
Roiland T. Edward Welborn’s attorney, in a statement, said media coverage of the case was “inaccurate”. Welborn added, “To be clear, Not only is Justin innocent, but we also expect this matter to be closed once the DA completes a methodical analysis of the evidence.”
Domestic violence is without a doubt a heinous crime. However, there is nothing good in the early termination of contracts with dismissals – such actions can be called extrajudicial prosecution. Especially when they are taken even before the announcement of the court verdict, during which the innocence of the accused can be proved. A similar thing recently happened to Johnny Depp, who was losing contracts and income for a number of years before the domestic violence charge was dropped and the libel case was settled.
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