Justin Roiland’s replacement on Solar Opposites has been announced, and it might be a sneak peek at how Rick and Morty will handle his recasting for Season 7.
British actor Dan Stevens — who you’ve seen in Downton Abbey, Beauty and The Beast, and crucially Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga — is replacing Roiland as the voice of Korvo, the patriarch-ish figure of the alien family in Hulu’s animated sitcom. The reveal (h/t The Hollywood Reporter) came in the form of the above video, which seems like it could serve as the cold open for the new season.
Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), who’s bought the original dartboard from Cheers, accidentally throws one of the darts into Korvo’s throat, which is swiftly fixed with a convenient alien voice-fixing gadget. As he walks away, scolding his partner, their child-like replicants note that his voice sounds different: imperious and extremely British. Terry (Thomas Middleditch) moves to restore Korvo’s original voice, but Yumyulack stops him: “It’s working for me,” he says, unsubtly.
The clip then dives into the exposition-forward opening sequence, with Stevens taking over Korvo’s verbose monologue explaining the premise of the show and adding new lines hand-waving the voice change.
“This is what my voice sounds like now, I don’t care if it’s jarring, get over it,” he declares. “And that voice changer ray had chronotons so this is what I’ll sound like in flashbacks [from now on] too. If you’ve got a problem with that, then tough shit! It’s called science!”
Roiland was fired from multiple productions and roles after felony domestic violence charges (since dropped) and reports of inappropriate behaviour came to light earlier this year.
Roiland’s fondness for meta storytelling where any rule can be broken, any plot point retconned, or anything just changed for any reason if it’s funny or necessary has made it remarkably easy for the switch to be made — and fan complaints to be pre-empted.
As for Rick and Morty — which Roiland co-created with Dan Harmon, and also voiced both titular roles — his recasting was only just officially confirmed, and no replacement has been named just yet. No word on whether audition opportunities will be available to the many, many men the world over who believe they have a killer Morty impression.
Solar Opposites Season 4 premieres Aug. 14 on Hulu.
