The animated sitcom Rick and Morty features high-concept sci-fi rigamarole jampacked with dark comedic themes, which makes it one of the best Adult Swim TV shows. It follows the adventures of 70-year-old Rick Sanchez, the smartest man in every conceivable universe, and his 14-year-old “grandson” as they go about their everyday lives in Universe C-137. However, throughout its Season 3 run in 2017, fans posed the question: are Rick and Morty actually the same person?
Throughout Season 3, Rick and Morty explore some pretty far-out concepts. From creating an Abraham Lincoln/Adolf Hitler mash-up to dating a hive-mind entity, Rick seems to have done it all. Morty joins his adventures relatively late in the game, but some theories about Rick’s relationship to Morty suggest Morty wasn’t missing out on the experiences. Essentially, theorists posit that Morty will eventually share all of Rick’s experiences because they are the same person. That’s right, there’s a Rick and Morty fan theory that suggests Morty is actually 14-year-old Rick.
Although this theory explains a few things (like the similarities between the characters in speech and personality), it also raises a lot of questions (like if Morty is Rick, then who is Morty’s real grandpa? And why do they have different names if they’re the same person?). To find these answers and more, check out all these reasons why Rick and Morty are definitely the same person.
1. Rick Takes The Place Of A Rick In Another Universe Without A Second Thought In “Rick Potion #9”
In “Rick Potion #9,” Rick accidentally “Cronenbergs” the entire universe, and is forced to travel to another universe and take the place of a different Rick who had recently died. Morty loses it after seeing his own corpse and Rick tries to calm him down by explaining that there are an infinite amount of universes, and they’re just going to “slip into the place of their dead selves in this reality, and everything will be fine.”
Has Rick done this before? It certainly seems so, given how calm he is about seeing a dead version of himself. He also mentions that this isn’t something he can do every week – that there are only three or four more chances to take the identities of other Rick/Morty’s, which suggests Rick has crunched the numbers on this before.
2. If Rick Is Morty, Then Who’s Morty’s REAL Grandfather?
So, let’s break this down. If Rick and Morty are the same person, then Morty’s real grandfather would have to be Rick, right? Given how Rick was so calm when burying his own body in “Rick Potion #9,” it makes sense that Rick has killed a version of himself before to take on the role of “grandfather.”
Meaning Rick used to be a young Morty who killed the “grandfather” to become Rick the grandfather. This would mean that one day, if Morty wanted to become the grandfather, then he would kill Rick, right? Fans who believe that Morty is actually his own grandfather relate him to Fry from Futurama.
3. W-W-W-What’s Up With All The Stuttering?
Rick and Morty have surprisingly similar voices. Their dialogue has an almost improvisational tone. Keep in mind that Morty is only 14, and likely hasn’t fully progressed through puberty yet. Rick, on the other hand, has 70 years of flask-drinking, Kalaxian Crystal-snorting, and multi-verse jumping to gruff-up his voice.
Sure, Justin Roiland does the voice for both Rick and Morty, but the characters also share similar, intentional speaking habits. Both characters stammer a lot and stutter on their W’s, which suggests it’s something that Morty never grew out of as he aged into Rick.
4. The Blue Pants Theory Also Points To Rick And Morty Being The Same Person
In the Season 3 opener, “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” Rick is held captive by the Galactic Federation, and an agent is sent into his brain Inception-style to see how Rick invented his infamous portal gun. Rick shows the agent a “flashback” of young Rick and his family, where Rick mentions that he used to wear blue pants. Who else wears blue pants? Morty.
Could this be a subtle hint to a deeper relationship between Rick and Morty? Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland are known to include subtle clues disguised as sight-gags.
5. The Animated Short ‘Rick and Morty vs. Genocider’ Short Shows How Morty Becomes One Version Of Rick
In July 2020, Adult Swim released Rick and Morty vs. Genocider, an 8.5-minute Japanese-language anime short that supports the theory.
After activating a protective shield around Morty and the room he’s in, Rick calls him “Rick Sanchez.” Then, a bubble surrounds the room Morty is kept safe in while the world falls apart around him, and Jerry leaves a voice message for “Rick” saying a baby was born, “Morty.”
The implication is that Morty aged within the bubble (or was aged with the “potion” the previous Rick left for him), and had now become Rick.
Redditor u/ZackJamesOBD offered a more detailed explanation:
Rick C137 took over… Morty via the potion to stay alive. The potion was made up of Rick’s memories [plus] the Season 2 alien’s parasite blood, allowing Morty to shape-shift into C137 Rick. This all happens in the past via time travel, [w]hich is why Jerry calls saying Morty is born.
Evil Morty is the version that never took the potion, suggesting he allowed his Rick to die as he continued living on as Morty.
Edit: You can tell it’s Evil Morty because he’s controlling an Evil Rick (notice the control box). Also, the Rick taunting him in the end, “Wow this timeline sucks,” seems to be a hallucination/ ghost of his past. indicating Evil Morty took a different route by not taking the potion.
6. Diane Sanchez Could Be Annie
There is another clue in “The Rickshank Rickdemption.” Fans finally get catch a glimpse of Rick’s wife, Diane, and immediately noticed that she looks a lot like Annie from the “Anatomy Park” episode in Season 1. Annie is one of the only people Morty has ever hooked up with, aside from his sex robot, Gwendolyn, in “Raising Gazorpazorp.” But if Annie and Diane are the same person, then why are their names different?
Rick is a known war criminal. If he (Morty) and his wife (Diane) were on the run, one of the first things they would do is change their names. How do we even know “Rick Sanchez” is Rick’s real name in the first place? It stands to reason that Morty changed his name while on the run, and eventually landed on Rick when he became Morty’s “grandfather.”7. Remember That Rickless Morty? He Looks Like A Morty Becoming A Rick!
In the episode “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind,” fans are introduced to The Citadel of Ricks for the first time. You learn that Ricks and Mortys from all different Universes come together. There are some pretty interesting versions of Rick and Morty in the Citadel, but in the Season 3 opener in “The Rickshank Rickdemption,” you see a Rick/Morty hybrid. Why would a Rick-less Morty have access to the Citadel of Ricks?
Sure, maybe it’s a random sight-gag, but if you look closely, you’ll see that the skin tone and hair color of the Rick/Morty looks more like Rick. This suggests that you’re actually seeing Young Morty during his awkward transition into Old Rick. Plus, he’s wearing blue pants!
8. Rick Is Hard On Morty Because He Hates Himself
Rick is one of the most self-loathing, hateful bastards in the multi-verse. No one is particularly proud of what they were like at 14, but imagine if you had to hang out with your 14-year-old self all the time and put up with all of that nonsense. Rick is particularly harsh on Morty because he’s his own worst critic, and he’s forced to relive every stupid decision he made as a teenager.
Plus, he knows Morty can take it, and that it will eventually turn him into a better person, or at least a Rick-ier person.
9. Rick Is Totally Desensitized, And Morty Is Following In His Footsteps
Ever since the pilot episode, Rick has been putting Morty into some pretty ridiculous situations. Morty has buried his own corpse, forced an entire civilization into slave labor, and once kicked a jelly bean’s ass because it tried to rape him. Rick is generally unfazed by these things. He’s seen all of the crazy, f*cked up stuff the multiverse has to offer, and he’s slowly exposing Morty to it one adventure at a time.
This explains why Rick is literally never shocked by anything in the multi-verse. He’s literally seen all of it before, when he was a kid adventuring with his “grandfather.”