Justin Roiland's replacements on Rick and Morty will copy his performance, rather than provide new voices. This comes after Roiland was dropped from all of his voice-acting commitments following allegations of domestic abuse and inappropriate communications with fans.
While he was let go in January of this year, the Rick and Morty Panel and San Diego Comic-Con confirmed that Roiland is yet to be recast. However, the team did provide an update, saying they are currently looking for "sound-alikes", and that there would be "no change" to how Rick and Morty sound in the show going forward.
"We are closing in on the end of our process of the recast, but I do want to say it’s gonna be great," says executive producer Steven Levy in a panel attended by Variety. He was then asked what voice these new actors will go for, to which Levy responded, "It’s sound-alikes [...] The characters are the same characters. No change."
Roiland has already been replaced in one of his former shows, Solar Opposites, which took a much different approach. Here, a trailer acknowledged the voice change within the show itself, jokingly using a "voice fixing" ray gun on his character, Korvo. This inexplicably turned him British, something the show is just rolling with now, making light of the fact that they're not bothering to explain it further.
Not only does the Rick and Morty panel confirm that this show will be opting to keep things going as smoothly as possible, it also seems that we'll be getting different actors for both of the titular protagonists. Roiland had voiced them both, but with the studio hoping to hire sound-alikes, it makes sense that it would rather get two separate actors who play their particular role well.
While the criminal charges brought against Roiland in relation to an alleged incident with an ex-partner have since been dropped, it's no great surprise that the studio wasn't eager to have him reprise his roles. Both before and after news of his arrest was made public, some fans online alleged that he was speaking with them over social media, often discussing their sex lives. This was despite one alleged victim being 15 at the time, and another admitting to being a victim of abuse.
"Justin Roiland has a track record of using social media to hit up and exploit vulnerable people and minors and I believe this is an open secret in the industry," said a Twitter user called Arlo at the time, who also shared allegations of their own. "He used my sexual trauma and my love for [Rick and Morty] to groom me and I am just one of SO MANY."
After this, reports came out detailing alleged inappropriate behaviour behind the scenes on the shows he worked on. This included instances of sexism and a general lack of professionalism, which could hold up production. Most surprisingly, it was claimed that he hadn't been on good terms with series co-creator Dan Harmon for years, and had little involvement with the show's writing.
It remains to be seen who takes over voicing Rick and Morty now. Season seven is still in production.