Over the past two weeks co-creator of Rick and Morty, Justin Roiland, has been charged with domestic violence, and now Adult Swim has cut ties, with Roiland resigning from Squanch Games as well.
On January 16, Squanch Games received CEO and Co-Creator Justin Roiland’s resignation from the studio fresh after the success of High on Life — the studio’s biggest launch yet — for the Xbox Game Pass platform. Tuesday evening, Adult Swim made the move of completely severing ties with the co-creator and voice of the titular characters of Rick and Morty while also announcing that they are planning to continue the series without Roiland. The announcement can be seen below.
The public revelation of the crimes Roiland has been charged with was enough for Adult Swim to sever their ties with the voice actor publicly. This is notable after Roiland was signed on by Adult Swim for a staggering contract extension in 2018, which was for 70 more episodes of the popular show. He hasn’t voiced even half of that quota as of today.
NBC News reported on Jan 12 the severity of Roiland’s felony charges which lists “domestic battery and false imprisonment in May 2020” as the main crimes. Cornell Law School’s overview of ‘false imprisonment’ states:
An act of restraint can be a physical barrier (such as a locked door), the use of physical force to restrain, a failure to release, or an invalid use of legal authority. An area is only bounded if freedom of movement is limited in all directions. If there is a reasonable means of escape from the area, the area is not bounded. However, if the means of escaping will result in the risk of physical harm to the detainee, then the area is bounded.
– Cornell, False Imprisonment
While the definition above is as cut and dry as it gets, Justin Roiland has only appeared in pre-trial hearings as of this article and hasn’t been convicted or sentenced to anything just yet.
Justin Roiland’s Attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, made the following statement to EW on January 12 “It is hard to overstate how inaccurate the recent media coverage of this situation has been. 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. We look forward to clearing Justin’s name and helping him move forward as swiftly as possible,” regarding the scrutiny his client faces.
UPDATE [JAN 26]: Justin Roiland Faces Accusations Of Grooming On Top Of Felony Domestic Charges [TRIGGER WARNING]
As the charges were brought against Roiland, others have taken to Twitter to levy their complaints against him. Podcaster Jordan Crucciola stated “this incident allegedly occurred in 2020. I know journalists who have pursued stories about him since YEARS before that. There are more women. There are more stories. I hope they’re ok,” regarding the ongoing case against Roiland.
Surely enough, a slew of allegations were then thrown at Justin Roiland on Twitter to the same ilk, accusations of grooming behavior. Musician Allie Goertz shared “For now, I’ll just share the types of “funny” DMs Justin Roiland would send me,” and included an alleged personal conversation she had with the actor.
Others have also come out in droves against Roiland with explicit detail. User @arlocado unleashed an entire Twitter thread, complete with retweets of many other accusers who all say the same thing about the grooming accusations Roiland faces. Reddit also has multiple threads loaded with accusations against Roiland, suggesting Roiland is “a serial predator.”
One thing is for certain moving forward, Rick and Morty will continue, but Justin Roiland won’t be there with it, and other projects Roiland is associated with, such as Solar Opposites, have yet to make a statement regarding these issues.
