Rick and Morty season 3

It’s been a long time - over a year-and-a-half - since the season two of Rick and Morty aired.

News regarding the third season has been quite turbulent. On April Fool’s Day earlier this year, the first episode was suddenly released to rave reviews from critics, spawning another Internet dominating meme (McDonald's Szechuan, anyone?). 

After that surprise, months passed with no new information, an exact release date not being revealed for some time.

However, following a live-stream, the world was graced with a new trailer and an actual release date. So, let’s look into everything we know so far about season three of Rick and Morty.

Release date and how to watch

After a lengthy wait, Adult Swim confirmed new episodes of Rick and Morty would start airing from the 30 July at 11.30 am ET onwards.

Previously, the only official acknowledgment of when to expect new episodes was ‘this summer’, as poster by the show's Twitter account. Episodes will be broadcast on Adult Swim in the US.

Netflix (which carries seasons 1 and 2) has confirmed to The Independent that the premiere, 'The Rickshank Rickdemption', will be available on 30 July and the show will be added to the 

streaming service every Sunday until it concludes on 8 October.

It unfortunately appears the Netflix uploads will be a week behind Adult Swim's broadcast of the episodes, however.

What have we seen so far?

As mentioned above, the first episode — titled 'The Rickshank Redemption' — has been released, our review available to read here.

Along with the release date, we also received an official trailer featuring more snippets from the upcoming season, soundtracked by Dizzee Rascal's 'Bonkers'.

- We’ve also been treated to a rick-rolling trailer, released before the first episode, that managed to anger many fans around the world.

More revealing is the San Diego Comic-Con where a basic storyboard animation was shown, revealing Pickle Rick fighting (and decapitating) rats.

Did we mention Pickle Rick? There’s also been a short teaser showing Rick as a pickle! We don’t know why. 

Also made available online are numerous teasers, spoofing various pop-culture phenomenon and using previously seen Rick and Morty characters, such as the Meeseeks.

Rick and Morty also teamed up with Alien: Covenant to produce a clip featuring a face-hugger from the attacking Rick, attempting to implant baby aliens into the grandfather. 

One last clip: we’ve also seen voice actor Justin Roiland doing shots and getting drunk to perform as Rick for an especially drunk episode four. 

Why the delay?

Speaking at Sundance festival earlier this year, creator Dan Harmon said of the creative process: [Me and co-creator Justin Roiland] have fights all the time and then we have fights about why we’re having fights. Well, we didn’t fight during season 2, that’s why it’s taking longer! All this fighting! So OK, let’s stop fighting!’"