'Rick And Morty' Boss Talks Latest Episode’s James Gunn Appearance, Zack Snyder Surprise

It’s our problem free Velocitrees. Also THAT’S what that photo was for?

James Gunn is no stranger to animation, having cameoed on Harley Quinn and contributed to the story of Coyote vs. Acme, on top of all the CG and CG characters of the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and The Suicide Squad. And that was even before (okay there’s slight overlap) he became co-CEO of DC Studios, creating and writing Creature Commandos, which soft-launched his DC Universe. Plus he’s probably going to be executive producer by default on anything animated DC Studios puts out. Now, ahead of the hard-launch with Superman, which he wrote and directed, he’s made an appearance on the seventh episode of the current eighth season of Rick and Morty, “Ricker than Fiction”, with a little bit of Man of Steel director and (his) good friend Zack Snyder along the way. Showrunner Scott Marder talked about how it all went down.

But first, a little context. “Ricker Than Fiction” is written by Rob Schrab, and starts with Rick and Morty unhappy with the creative direction of Maximum Velocitree their favorite movie franchise. Gunn’s name is all over its credits as director, writer, and producer. Rick has a Karen moment and wants to speak with the head of Warner Bros.. However, unable to bite too hard on the hand of their actual corporate overlord David Zaslav, or even Warner Bros. Pictures co-CEOs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca, it’s Gunn himself who’s positioned as the head of Warner Bros. Finding themselves unsatisfied with Gunn’s response to their concerns, Rick and Morty head home and use Rick’s “Movie-lizer” to “fix” the franchise themselves. However, their edits are so hack and slash that when their inputs get them sucked inside, they’re trapped because there’s no villain nor a third act. No ending means they can’t get out, and Jerry has to coach them.

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A buff Snyder, also voicing himself, approaches Gunn in the Warner Bros. cafeteria and tells him “Just saw your new cut of Superman, and word of advice, he’s the ‘Man of Steel,’ not the ‘Man of Conversation.’ Do more shots of him punching!”, and shares an apparently open secret about the proper technique, causing Gunn to lash out, as he worries about losing touch with the audience. Snyder goes on to warn him about Rick, with an anecdote that namedrops a certain Dark Knight trilogy director “That’s the guy who sealed [Christopher] Nolan in the giant bookcase to ‘punish’ him for Interstellar. He doesn’t represent real fans. He’s just the smartest man in the universe. Don’t sweat it. He can’t do what we do. Probably.” He then leaves to go to the gym. When the trio does manage to make something of an ending by Rick and Morty becoming the villains and meeting their defeats, it even impresses Gunn, bringing him to tears and calling it better than he could have done. However, as they make their way back to the real world Gunn steals the Movie-lizer’s hard drive to meet with “Mr. Brothers”, elated at Rick and Morty’s feat that could change Hollywood. While Brothers is seemingly impressed, Gunn clearly knows too much and so has his henchman shoot him dead.

“They were good sports,” executive producer Scott Marder said. “Both of those guys sort of implied that this is the show they watch when they have downtime. So they were thrilled to get to be a part of the world, and there was no pushback or bristling. If anything, they laughed at anything we threw at them. There were probably, frankly, even more digs and more silly things we could have used. All they did was laugh it off.” Marder also revealed the idea started as a “Bookalizer” where it was about Jerry writing a book. But seeing as Jerry already had a focus episode in “The Last Temptation of Jerry” (after a season-opening three-episode absence), Marder seemed quite excited by a classic Rick and Morty adventure instead. “We were like, if we’re going to do a movie and we’re going skewer Hollywood, we feel like we have to include our bosses,” he said. “So we started thinking about Warner Bros. Who’d be a good face to be kind of the villain here? James Gunn just seemed like such a good choice. We were all pretty sure that whenever Schrab reached out Gunn he would be a million percent in the middle of doing Superman. But he not only did he respond instantly with a yes, but I think he ran it up the chain at Warner Bros. that same day. We had people on our production side who were like, ‘How is it that James Gunn and Zaslav and all these people already know about this episode?’ We didn’t think it would actually move this quickly.” Marder says Gunn made sure to find time to get in the recording booth for the episode the morning after principal production on Superman finished. “I think Gunn called people over him to make sure that this wasn’t going to mess anything up. And it looked like he got the green light pretty quickly. They both came in and were really good sports. I’m a very proud nerd, I idolize both these guys. They’ve got creative freedom very few people have in Hollywood to take big swings.”

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Even series co-creator Dan Harmon was pretty excited for such recording, and is the author of their exchange. “When he heard that they were on board and they were coming in, he sort of cracked his knuckles and wanted to make sure the episode lived up to and was worthy of them, having to deliver those lines,” Marder said. Gunn and Snyder recorded their lines back-to-back, and took a picture together that drew a flurry of speculation, none of it coming close to cluing in on it being for Rick and Morty, almost entirely instead about potential Snyder involvement at DC Studios. Which photo? Well, the one above of course, from February 20, where Gunn expressed giddiness about meeting back up with him. “I appreciate that we were able to keep it tight lips until now,” Marder said. “We’re pretty Fort Knox over here, we’re really clamped down. Anything that goes out into the public we see, and we get approval on because the fans look at everything, like the Zapruder film or through a jeweler’s lens.” And it turns out, Snyder, whose (released) animation experience includes directing 2010’s Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and co-creating Netflix’s Twilight of the Gods, is such a fan that he almost immediately asked to do more. “I direct all the voices, so I directed both those guys, and Snyder left, and he came back like a fan, saying, ‘I’ll do anything for the show. Throw me a tag. Throw me a thing,’” Marder said. “It was just cool to hear such enthusiasm from him.”

It’s worth noting that Steve Agee, who Gunn has worked with since Super and has played John Economos since The Suicide Squad and will reprise the role again when season 2 of Peacemaker premieres in August, also has a role in the episode but went undiscussed. Rick and Morty’s eighth season continues in its 11 PM Sunday timeslot on Adult Swim through the end of the month, with next week’s episode being “Nomortland”. The next time preview sees Jerry with a five o’clock shadow enjoying a bowl of cereal and minding his own business…until he’s confronted by what is likely our Jerry, but who knows what the situation really is. The season hits Hulu and HBO Max September 1. With Warner Bros. giving their major films 11 weeks from theatrical release until HBO Max arrival regardless of box office, we could be seeing Superman join Rick and Morty on the platform as soon as September 26 if they stick to the practice.

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Source: Variety