A day after Adult Swim execs made the decision to cut ties with and fire Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland from the animated hit, more axes have come down in the wake of Roiland’s domestic violence charges going public. His pair of streaming shows, Hulu’s Solar Opposites and the recently released Koala Man, are also distancing themselves from the scandal-tinged creator.
According to THR, both Hulu and the shows’ animation studio 20th Century Animation are pulling up anchor, saying this in a brief statement:
We have ended our association with Justin Roiland.
Justin Roiland co-created Solar Opposites with Mike McMahon, a Rick and Morty alum who also showruns Star Trek: Lower Decks for Paramount+, while he served as an executive producer and voice actor on Koala Man, which was created by Michael Cusack.
At this time, both Solar Opposites and Koala Man are expected to continue on with upcoming plans. The NSFW sci-fi comedy has been a hit for Hulu across its first three seasons and Disney-poking holiday special, and has been renewed through Season 5 so far. It's presumed that the other producers will find someone to replace Roiland in the role of Korvo and others, while still maintaining other stars like Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone and Mary Mack.
Koala Man, which boasts guest turns from Hugh Jackman and Alexandra Daddario (among others), has been received positively by critics and viewers since its debut on January 9. It's unclear if or when the streaming service will make a decision about the comedy's future, but given Roiland's general lack of direct involvement with the day-to-day creative process, this could be the easiest project to go forward with following his firing.
Justin Roiland's pop culture impact isn't just going away on the TV side of things, but also in video games. On the same day the Rick and Morty news dropped, the company Squanch Games — which released the Roiland-created comedy-action video game High on Life on December 13, 2022 — shared the following statement on Twitter, revealing that Roiland had officialy resigned more than a week prior.
pic.twitter.com/eWRdAzKwlIJanuary 25, 2023
Similar to Hulu's plans for its two Roiland-free shows, Squanch will continue to provide support for High on Life, which did not fare as well critically as the 2019 VR hit Trover Saves the Universe.
Reports surfaced earlier in January that Roiland was charged over a 2020 incident involving an unidentified female with a felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury, as well as a felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud, and/or deceit. At the time, he was appearing in court for a pre-trial hearing, with the next hearing set for April 27, and his lawyer shared a statement declaring his client to be innocent of the "inaccurate" charges.
In the days immediately following, it was unclear if anyone in Hollywood would react in meaningful ways, and that silence only grew louder as allegations surfaced online saying Roiland used toxic language and slurs in DM exchanges with various females (at least one of whom was reportedly underage).
At this time, Solar Opposites and Koala Man can be streamed in full with a Hulu subscription.
