The Rick and Morty movie is now in early development at Warner Bros., with longtime series director Jacob Hair in talks to direct the animated feature based on the hit Adult Swim series.
The film is still in the early stages, which means plot details, release plans and full creative team information have not been announced yet. However, the development itself is significant because it would mark the biggest expansion yet for one of Adult Swim’s most recognizable and commercially valuable animated franchises.
The InSneider was first to report today’s Rick and Morty movie news, with later trade coverage confirming that Warner Bros. is developing the project and that Jacob Hair is in talks to direct.
The original series, created by Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, premiered in 2013 and quickly became a defining adult animated show of the streaming-era conversation. Built around the chaotic adventures of cynical scientist Rick Sanchez and his anxious grandson Morty Smith, the show mixed absurd comedy, multiverse science fiction, emotional dysfunction and dark existential ideas in a way that helped it build a massive global fanbase.
Rick and Morty has continued to remain active on Adult Swim, with more seasons already planned. A movie would therefore not be a replacement for the series, but an expansion of the brand into a new format.
The multiverse setup gives Warner Bros. plenty of creative flexibility. The film could tell a standalone adventure, explore a major threat across realities, revisit key characters from the show’s mythology or even use the movie format to parody Hollywood franchise storytelling itself. Given the series’ long history of mocking genre rules, a Rick and Morty movie could easily become both a sci-fi spectacle and a satire of big-screen franchise expansion.
A movie version makes sense for the franchise because Rick and Morty has always operated on a cinematic scale inside a television format. Its episodes regularly jump between dimensions, alternate timelines, alien civilizations, cosmic wars and strange philosophical detours. A feature film could give the creators more room to build a larger story with bigger stakes, more elaborate animation and a wider emotional arc.
Jacob Hair’s potential involvement is also important. Hair is not an outsider being brought in to translate the show for a new format. He has been part of the Rick and Morty creative ecosystem for years, having directed multiple episodes and served as a supervising director on the series. That makes him a natural choice for a film that would need to preserve the show’s rhythm, visual language and unpredictable comic energy.
No official voice cast has been announced for the Rick and Morty Movie yet. If the project moves forward, one of the next major updates will likely be whether the current voice cast from the later seasons returns for the feature. Given the continuity of the show, that would be the expected direction, but Warner Bros. has not confirmed casting details.
At this stage, the Rick and Morty movie remains in early development. But with Jacob Hair in talks to direct, the project appears to be taking shape with someone who already understands the DNA of the series. If Warner Bros. can preserve that identity while giving the story a true cinematic reason to exist, Rick and Morty could make one of adult animation’s most natural jumps to the big screen.
Read More: