As expected following yesterday’s news that Adult Swim had severed all ties with Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, Hulu has now parted ways with the creative. He was the co-creator and one of the leads on the acclaimed comedy Solar Opposites as well as an executive producer and voice actor on Koala Man. Both are now expected to go on without him and his roles will be recast.
“We have ended our association with Justin Roiland,” 20th Television Animation and Hulu Originals said in a joint statement. Roiland is currently facing up to seven years in prison after being 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. As first reported by NBC News, it all stems back to an incident from January 19, 2020, involving a Jane Doe whom Roiland was dating at the time who was later cited in a felony complaint in May 2020. The semi-sealed case stayed out of the public eye until January 12, 2023, as Roiland was preparing to go in for a hearing the following day. Roiland pleaded not guilty to the charges back in 2020 and is awaiting his next pre-trial hearing on April 27.
Although Rick and Morty is Roiland‘s most ubiquitous work, he was a major factor in Hulu and 20th Century Animation‘s long-term plans as well. He and Mike McMahan, one of the writers for Roiland‘s flagship series, teamed up with the streamer to release Solar Opposites on May 8, 2020. Roiland stars as Korvo, the “leader” of the family of aliens living on Earth, and provides a number of other voices as well. The series has since been another hit and is currently locked in for five seasons with its fourth season slated for later in 2023, though it’s unclear how that release will be affected by Roiland‘s departure.
Koala Man, meanwhile, was released on January 9 from creator Michael Cusack and showrunners Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. The series is expected to recast Roiland‘s roles and remove him as executive producer as it moves forward at Hulu. Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites, and Koala Man all hail from his animation studio, Solo Vanity Card Productions.
Roiland Also Resigned From His Video Game Company In the Wake of the Charges
On Tuesday, it was also revealed that Roiland stepped down from Squanch Games, the video game developer he co-founded alongside former Epic Games executive Tanya Watson. Originally formed under the name Squanchtendo with offices in Burbank, California, and Raleigh, North Carolina, the studio published a number of comedic gaming titles including Accounting+, Dr. Splorchy Presents: Space Heroes, and Trover Saves the Universe. Most recently, the studio found acclaim with the release of High on Life, a parody first-person shooter that rose to become Xbox Game Pass‘s biggest launch of 2022 and the platform’s most successful third-party release ever.
The future of Squanch Games after Roiland is somewhat uncertain as he eventually became the sole CEO of the developer. Updates on previously released games are expected to continue as planned, however, particularly for High on Life which the company assured would not be left behind. “The passionate team at Squanch will keep developing games we know our fans will love while continuing to support and improve High on Life,” a statement from the development team read.
We’ll have updates on the futures of Solar Opposites and Koala Man as they come out.
via Collider