Wubba Lubba Dub Dub: A ‘Rick and Morty’ Feature Film Is Officially in the Works with Jacob Hair Directing
Get your portal guns ready. Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim are officially bringing the multiverse to the silver screen. A feature-length Rick and Morty movie is actively in development, with veteran series director Jacob Hair locked in to helm the project.
The blockbuster announcement from Deadline marks a monumental milestone for the multi-Emmy-winning animated powerhouse. As the mainline television series continues its highly successful late-season run on Adult Swim, the leap to a theatrical feature cements Rick and Morty as one of the most economically and culturally dominant animated properties of the 21st century.
Placing the Multiverse in Safe Hands
For die-hard fans of the series, the choice of Jacob Hair to lead the transition to cinema is a massive cause for celebration. Hair is far from a stranger to the complex, emotionally volatile, and visually chaotic landscape of the Smith-Sanchez household.
Having served as a core director and storyboard artist on the series for years, Hair is the creative mind behind some of the franchise’s most iconic and critically acclaimed half-hours. Most notably, he directed the Season 4 masterpiece “The Vat of Acid Episode“—a brilliant, tragicomic narrative that won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and is widely considered by the fandom to be a top-three episode in the entire series.
Hair’s proven ability to balance high-concept, multi-layered sci-fi tropes with genuine, devastating character development makes him the ideal architect to scale the property up for a 90-minute theatrical runtime.
Scaling Up the Sci-Fi Stakes
While specific plot details regarding the cinematic debut are being kept under lock and key in a secure Galactic Federation vault, the jump to feature filmmaking opens up an entirely new pipeline of creative possibilities.
The mainline television series has built a massive, dedicated global fandom around its serialized lore—ranging from the tragic fall of the Citadel of Ricks to the overarching threat of Evil Morty and Rick Prime. A feature film allows the animation team to break past the constraints of a standard 22-minute television budget, promising a cinematic scale of space-faring warfare, mind-bending visual dimensions, and existential dread that the franchise has only ever teased on the small screen.
The movie comes amid a broader expansion of the Rick and Morty IP, which has recently branched out into high-profile anime spin-offs, massive video game crossovers, and multi-season renewals that guarantee the main show will remain on the air through the end of the decade.
The Ultimate Executive Brain Trust
The film is being produced under the joint corporate banners of Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim, ensuring the series’ signature, pitch-black, uncompromising cynical humor remains completely intact on the big screen.
Series showrunner Scott Marder is heavily involved alongside the central creative brain trust to ensure the film aligns with the narrative trajectory of the upcoming seasons. With Jacob Hair steering the ship, audiences can expect a cinematic experience that stays fiercely loyal to the show’s dark, brilliant roots—just with a lot more explosions, a lot more dimensions, and hopefully, a much bigger vat of fake acid.
With all that said, if Justin Roiland isn’t involved, I want nothing to do with it and apparently neither do most of the show’s one-time fans.
The InSneider was first to today’s Rick and Morty news.
