Rick Sanchez was born as a drunken, psychotic parody of Dr. Emmett Brown from Back To The Future, but over the course of seven excellent seasons of Rick And Morty (available to stream with a Max subscription), he has become a far more complex character. He’s a god-level genius who can create any product his vast imagination conceives, and he holds an understanding of the universe that nobody else can even partially grasp… but that understanding has also crippled him emotionally and poisons every relationship he has.
Both because of his intelligence and deep issues, Rick is someone who can be described as being closed-off… but that being said, fans have learned some fascinating things about his backstory over the years. So who is Rick Sanchez, and how did he become the person we meet in the first episode of Rick & Morty?
We’ve put this feature together in an attempt to help answer that question and highlight key events that have been revealed about his past. Despite this conversation being about a comedy show, we’ll end up going to some pretty dark places, but before we go there, let’s start on a lighter note.
Rick Used To Live In A House That Looks Exactly Like The Whites' House From Breaking Bad
In the Season 3 premiere "The Rickshank Rickdemption," certain revealed information about Rick Sanchez’s life is embellished or falsified, but it turns out that one weird-but-true detail in the episode is the look of the house where Rick raised his family. Fans of Breaking Bad will note that the Sanchez home in the animated show is modeled on the house where Walter White and his wife and kids reside for the majority of the beloved AMC series (one of Rick And Morty’s many excellent subtle and inside jokes).
It’s an odd thing, but viewers will find that the architectural design introduced in Season 3 remains consistent in the Season 5 finale "Rickmurai Jack, " which is where Morty finally learns concrete facts about his grandfather’s life (with viewers getting an education as well).
Rick Was Married To A Woman Named Diane, Who Was Murdered Along With His Daughter By Rick Prime
Rick was always smart and a clever inventor, but he wasn’t always the hollowed-out cynic whom audiences have gotten to know since the Rick and Morty pilot. At one point, he was a content family man living in Dimension C-137 with a wife named Diane, and it was with her that he had his daughter, Beth. While out in his garage one day trying to invent a portal gun, he was approached by an evil version of himself who would eventually be known as Rick Prime. The stranger told him about interdimensional travel and invited him to explore infinity, but Rick turned him down.
In a petty act of vengeance for the refusal, Rick Prime later drops a bomb through a portal into the garage, and though Rick is saved because he's sitting in his car, Diane and Beth are both murdered. Rick spirals into a depression, but he digs himself out of it by finding purpose.
It Was Because Of Rick’s Family Being Murdered That He Invented Portal Technology And Spent Years Trying To Get Revenge
Contradicting what’s shown in "The Rickshank Rickdemption," "Rickmurai Jack" reveals that Rick didn’t instantly invent interdimensional travel after Diane and Beth died, but that event is what eventually motivated him to reach his breakthrough. His one mission in life became finding and killing Rick Prime, and the first step in the chase was finding a way to make his portal gun work.
After he left Dimension C-137, Rick began his hunt around the multiverse. He desperately searched for Rick Prime (with help of a photo created with the scan of his own memory), and while he found and killed many alternate versions of himself, he consistently failed to track down his actual target.
Rick Was Part Of An Intergalactic Rebellion Alongside Birdperson And Squanchy
It was amid Rick’s hunt for vengeance that he got the attention of the Galactic Federation – and not in a good way. Though Rick is in no way what one would describe as a “joiner,” his hate of authority figures and contempt for anyone trying to prevent him from doing what he wants led him to become part of the intergalactic rebellion. In this endeavor, he is joined by two of the only people in his life to whom he gets particularly close.
As revealed in Season 5’s "Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort," Rick met Birdperson at a music festival where he was dealing drugs, and they formed a band with Birdperson’s friend Squanchy on drums. Birdperson helped Rick on his vengeance mission, and the three pals had a lot of fun together, but they also fought side-by-side in battle, and it was in part because of their efforts that the rebels won a decisive victory at the Battle Of Blood Ridge. When the fighting stopped, Rick invited Birdperson to travel with him across realities, but it was an offer that his friend refused.
Rick Helped Create The Citadel Of Ricks Before Abandoning It
Crippled by loneliness and in a constant state of depression and intoxication, Rick focused his entire life on finding Rick Prime, and it essentially ignited a war between the Rick And Morty protagonist and every other Rick across the multiverse. Rick of Dimension C-137 was able to annihilate all would-be assassins and even went as far as to firebomb an assembly of Ricks organizing an offensive against him. Eventually there was a surrender and peace talks.
Rick negotiated with the Council of Ricks until it was agreed that they would create the Citadel Of Ricks (which we first got to see in Season 1’s "Close Rick-Counters Of The Rick Kind"). Once this peace was created, Rick decided that he wanted no active part in it – again, he’s not a joiner – and he left.
After Years Of Fighting, Rick Moved To Rick Prime’s Universe Be With That Universe’s Version Of His Family And Await Rick Prime
With his rebellion days behind him and the existing detente with all other Ricks, Rick decided to take a different strategy in his hunt for Rick Prime: the passive approach. It’s revealed in "Solaricks" (the Season 6 premiere) that Rick traveled to the Prime universe to wait for Rick Prime to return so that he could then murder him.
The eponymous Morty in Rick And Morty is Morty Prime, and it was the Prime versions of Beth, Jerry, and Summer who were introduced in the show’s pilot. That universe was eventually Cronenberged (see: Season 1’s "Rick Potion #9"), and all of the versions of the principal characters with the exception of Morty are now dead. (Womp, womp.)
Season 7 concluded in December 2023, and while we don’t yet know when we are going to see the premiere of Rick and Morty Season 8, it’s in the works and on the way to a likely 2025 release. After that, there are still two more guaranteed runs of the hit Adult Swim show thanks to the 70-episode deal that was signed back in May 2018. Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for more news and updates about the series as well as more in-depth analysis of its wonderful characters.
