Justin Roiland, co-creator and star of the animated comedy Rick and Morty and the game high in lifeis charged with domestic violence in connection with an incident in January 2020. NBC News reports the arrest and arraignment on Thursday, citing a criminal complaint filed by the district attorney in May 2020 in Orange County, California. Roiland was in court Thursday for a pre-trial hearing.
Roiland was charged with two felonies: a charge of “domestic assault” and a charge of “false detention by threat, force, fraud and/or deception,” according to court filings. If convicted, Roiland faces several years in prison. the Rick and Morty Co-Creator was arrested in August 2020 and released on $50,000 bail. Roiland pleaded not guilty to both counts at his indictment on October 14, 2020. Case details remain limited; NBC News said some documents are sealed, leaving certain information inaccessible to the public and the media.
Since his indictment, Roiland has appeared in court for a series of preliminary hearings, the next of which is scheduled for April 27. The court has not yet set a hearing date.
T. Edward Welbourn, attorney for Justin Roiland, said in a statement to Polygon, “It’s hard to overstate how inaccurate recent media coverage of this situation has been. To be clear, not only is Justin innocent, but we have an expectation that this matter will be dismissed once prosecutors have completed their methodical review of the evidence. We look forward to clearing Justin’s name and helping him move forward as quickly as possible.”
NBC News also reported that a protective order was filed against Roiland in October 2020, but it’s not immediately clear who filed the order. The order prohibits Roiland from being within 100 feet of the person in question; He was also ordered not to “harass, threaten or monitor” that person and to turn over to him any firearms he may have owned, according to NBC News.
Roiland is best known for having contributed Rick and Morty 2012 with Dan Harmon. Roiland voices both title characters, Rick Sanchez and his grandson, Morty Smith. Rick and Morty was one of Adult Swim’s most popular shows of its six seasons. In 2018, Adult Swim ordered 70 new episodes of the show, which would stretch the show to approximately 10 seasons. An Adult Swim representative asked for comment did not comment on the charges against Roiland.
Roiland also founded a games studio, Squanch Games (formerly known as Squanchtendo) in 2016. The company has released four games: accounting, dr Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes, Trover saves the universeand high in life. high in life debuted in December 2022 and quickly became a huge hit – it was the biggest Game Pass launch of the year. Squanch Games did not respond to Polygon’s request for comment.
Update (January 24): Adult Swim no longer cooperates Rick and Morty Co-creator Justin Roiland weeks after news of his domestic violence charges broke. Adult Swim issued a statement on Tuesday, which simply read, “Adult Swim has ended its association with Justin Roiland.”
Adult Swim is tied to 10 seasons Rick and Mortyper a 2018 agreement. The show will go ahead and staff are currently working on Season 7, according to a tweet by the Rick and Morty Twitter account.
The Hollywood Reporter said The show continues with new voices for Roiland’s roles – the title characters.
Update 2 (January 24): Justin Roiland resigned from Squanch Games on Jan. 16, days after NBC News broke news of his charges, the game developer announced on Twitter. “The passionate team at Squanch will continue to create games that we know our fans will love while continuing to support and improve them high in life” Squanch Games tweeted.
Squanch Games has released its fourth game, high in lifeto massive success late last year.
