Rick and Morty season 5: Release date, plot and everything we know

*Warning: Contains spoilers for season four of Rick and Morty*

One of the most popular animated comedies around is heading back to our screens, with Rick and Morty season five expected to arrive later this year.

The fourth run of the hit comedy came to an end on Adult Swim in the US back in June, and fans have been patiently waiting for new episodes ever since.

Creator Justin Roiland is bringing new instalments out this year, and the good news is that the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t look to have affected production on the new season so far.

In fact, the show’s writer Alex Rubens recently revealed that they’re so far ahead they’ve already got seasons five and six mapped out behind the scenes.

Taking to Twitter, he teased: ‘Am I allowed to say we started writing Rick and Morty Season 7? (If not we didn’t and I’m not).’

Here’s everything we know for far about season five.

What happens in Rick and Morty season five?

While plot details have yet to be confirmed for the new season, we do know that the new series won’t be directly addressing the coronavirus pandemic.

Creator Justin recently spoke about upcoming episodes of the hit animation, saying that he won’t be following South Park’s lead over the pandemic and including it in the show.

The first episode of South Park’s 24th season in 2020 was ‘The Pandemic Special’, which focused on Randy and the residents of South Park as they learned to cope with the virus – but Rick and Morty’s new series will be covid free.

Elsewhere, there have been teaser clips already dropping with early sketches of what’s to come. Makers of the show have also promised fans some ‘epic canon’ will be taking place.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest talking points from season four came following the finale, which confirmed that Rick had cloned Beth during episode The ABC’s of Beth.

However, viewers are still in the dark as to which is the real Beth and which is the clone.

Co-creator Dan Harmon has also downplayed the identity of the real Beth in the upcoming episodes, saying: ‘Isn’t the more important fact that they both exist and the reason they both exist?’ during the Inside the Episode finale special.

When will Rick and Morty season five be released?

A release date has yet to be confirmed for the show, but fans can reasonably expect new episodes to arrive later this year.

According to Dan, the series is well on track despite the pandemic and seasons five and six are being worked on at the same time.

Speaking during PaleyFest NY, Dan said: ‘We are more on schedule than we’ve ever been. Everyone has to run this bee colony remotely. So the honey just gets made more consistently. It’s working for us.’

Rick And Morty seasons one to four are available on Netflix.

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