Aside from Justin Roiland's departure and the subsequent voice change for the two titular protagonists, Rick and Morty Season 7, which premiered on Adult Swim on October 15, has a number of notable differences from previous seasons.
The three episodes of the season already released all revolve around different stories and characters, with Rick seemingly ignoring his grandson and Season 6's obsession with tracking down Rick Prime.
Meanwhile, Morty has never played such a minor role in the show. In the premiere episode, the youngest Smith only appears for four minutes. And his role doesn't get any bigger in the following entries. So is it time to take Morty's name out of the show's title?
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. A fan on Reddit suggested a theory that could explain both why Rick is off on his adventures alone and why he seems to have forgotten about Rick Prime.
Is Rick doing this on purpose?
Redditor u/this-isnotaburner recently suggested on the Rick and Morty subreddit that Rick may actually be hatching a devious grand plan to capture Rick Prime. And his actions in Season 7 are part of that plan.
‘Morty is a barrier or whatever to Rick's superior brain waves. He’s not going out with Morty anymore because he wants Rick Prime to find him,’ the Redditor wrote.
This is actually a theory that could explain a lot. After the explosive finale of Season 6 and the promise that the hunt for Rick Prime would be the central theme of Season 7, many fans are disappointed with the return of the story-of-the-week format.
But what if Rick never forgot his grudge against Rick Prime and decided that instead of spending years trying to track him down, the smartest move would be to lure his elusive nemesis, who is known to somehow move through both space and time, into his own universe and timeline?
All Rick has to do is make Rick Prime want to find him (probably by playing on his nerves in some way) and let him do it by eliminating Morty as the one cloaking his brainwaves.
On the other hand, Morty doesn't seem too sad about his grandfather's sudden loss of interest in him. So we can assume that he is in on the plan, and while Rick is dealing with Mr. Poopybutthole's problems and the President craze, he is actually controlling the Rick Prime hunting operation.
Rick and Morty Season 7 Episode 4, That's Amorte, is set to premiere on Sunday, November 5th on Adult Swim.
Source: Reddit.