Dan Harmon and Scott Marder Say That ‘Rick and Morty’ Season 8 Is Heavily Influenced By ‘Succession’

The heads of Rick and Morty took inspiration from one of the most critically-lauded dramedies ever when planning Season Eight, which is only fair — whoever wrote Kendall’s rap clearly was a fan of “Get Schwifty.”

At their hearts, Rick and Morty and Succession are both shows about family. Sure, those families may be dysfunctional, abusive and traumatizing, and the overbearing patriarchs may be personally responsible for destroying the world (or several worlds). But, ultimately, both shows rely on the strong and complex relationships between related characters to work, and the wounds these families manage to inflict on each other’s hearts, souls and constantly-wiped minds are the stuff of TV gold.

Rick and Morty co-creator Summer of All Fears.” In the season premiere, Rick and Morty toyed with the power dynamics in Summer’s relationship with her mother and featured one of Rick’s pettiest and most scarring punishment of his grandkids. And, according to Marder, the show’s staff learned about fucked-up familial power plays from watching the other most acid-tongued, gray-haired patriarch on TV torture his own progeny.

Promising that the rest of Rick and Morty Season Eight will focus on the Sanchez-Smiths as a family unit, Marder revealed the realization that he, Harmon and their writers have had this far into the series. “ We’ve just found we never wanna leave (the family) out,” Marder said of the character-focused season. “Obviously, our favorite stories are Rick and Morty, but everyone’s so strong that it’s just so natural in the cooking up of ideas that a Jerry one, or a Summer one, or a Beth one will pop up.” 

“We get together in a room, and the most exciting idea comes in on any given day, and that’ll win the day,” Marder clarified, in case any readers worried that the high-concept sci-fi rigamarole was about to turn into a family drama. “And this season it’s certainly got a fun return to form with just kind of crazy (episodes) and heady ones. But it’s also got a nice light arc that touches on Rick dealing with being home, figuring out what’s next, and what it means in of his relationships with (the family).”

“Summer of All Fears” was a perfect balance of focusing on the relationships in the Smith family while still executing on an exciting sci-fi concept, as the artificial aging of Morty and Summer allowed the writers to explore how the jaded, mature and traumatized versions of the younger characters would relate to each other and to the rest of their family. “It was heavily influenced by Succession,” Marder revealed. “I think that series really made us excited about getting to do something grounded with adult versions of Summer and Morty.”

Hopefully, “Summer of All Fears” wasn’t the last time we’ll see a more adult, relationship-focused storyline with Summer and Morty — and, hopefully, Jerry’s conspicuous absence from the episode doesn’t mean that he’s being unceremoniously removed from the core dynamic like he’s Connor’s mom.