Justin Roiland, the co-creator of Rick and Morty, has been dropped by Adult Swim after the news broke that Roiland had been recently charged with felony domestic abuse.
According to the reports that initially surfaced, Roiland is facing domestic abuse charges for an incident that took place in 2020. While Roiland initially pled guilty to the charges, his attorney T. Edward Welbourn later insisted that the media coverage of the charges was “inaccurate” and that Roiland was innocent.
In a statement that was released earlier this month, following the original reports about the charges, Welbourn maintained that the charges brought before Roiland were untrue: “It is hard to overstate how inaccurate the recent media coverage of this situation has been.”
Welbourn added: “To be clear, not only is Justin innocent, but we also have every expectation that this matter is on course to be dismissed once the district attorney’s office has completed its methodical review of the evidence. We look forward to clearing Justin’s name and helping him move forward as swiftly as possible.”
A representative for Adult Swim announced on Tuesday, January 24th: “Adult Swim has ended its association with Justin Roiland.” This marks the end of Roiland’s association with Rick and Morty, the beloved sci-fi show that has developed a strong global following for its morbid sense of humour and zany metafictional conceits.
According to the first report by NBC, Roiland was charged with “one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit.” A court order filed in 2020 also says that Roiland cannot threaten, harass or surveil the individual mentioned in the order.