Animation Bosses Must Grapple With Abuse Claim

A domestic battery charge against Justin Roiland could roil his Rick and Morty empire

After news broke that Justin Roiland was charged with felony domestic violence in Orange County, several questions remain unanswered about the fate of his sprawling animation empire. As NBC News first reported Jan. 12, Roiland, the cocreator of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty and Hulu’s Solar Opposites, was charged in 2020 with one count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud or deceit after an alleged incident that year with an unnamed woman whom Roiland was dating. (Roiland has pleaded not guilty, and in a statement, his attorney T. Edward Welbourn

called the media coverage of the charges “inaccurate,” adding, “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.”)

Rick and Morty isn’t even halfway through a 70-episode order by Adult Swim in 2018. In addition to his role as a cocreator and executive producer on the cult series, Roiland voices the show’s titular characters. Beyond Adult Swim, Hulu has made deep investments in Roiland productions, including 20th TV Animation’s Solar Opposites, which is three seasons in and has been renewed through a fifth season on the Disney-run streamer. Roiland also exec produces and does voice work on

Koala Man, a Hulu comedy, and is CEO of the developer Squanch Games.

Adult Swim, 20th TV and Hulu did not comment for this story. Roiland is due back in an Orange County court April 27 for another pretrial hearing.

Roiland is the co-creator of Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty.

Roiland