Rick and Morty season 5 is coming and it's sure to be full of all the little details
and subtle jokes that we've come to expect.
Here are a few we saw in the new trailer.
In the trailer, there's a strange-looking character with slicked-back hair, pale blue
lips, gills on his neck, and very little clothing.
This guy is actually someone Rick detests more than any other creature in any other
universe, and the Rick and Morty season 5 trailer isn't the first time fans have caught
a glimpse of him.
Back in July 2020, Adult Swim released a first-look clip from the upcoming season, which features
incomplete animation of Rick and Morty escaping monsters on a ravaged planet, Morty driving
Rick's ship and dodging flaming asteroids, and then crashing the ship in the ocean.
Rick immediately panics, and then, the merman emerges from a giant clamshell to taunt Rick
and Morty.
His name is Mr. Nimbus, and he's Rick's "once and eternal foe."
"Who the [bleep] is that?"
"My nemesis."
"What?"
"My [bleep]ing nemesis, okay?"
"
Okay, but what was his name again?"
"I am Mr. Nimbus!"
Another short sequence in the season 5 trailer depicts Morty carrying an injured Rick through
a landscape dotted with floating crystals that look like a good place to store renegade
Kryptonian generals.
In Rick and Morty, however, these crystals aren't gateways to the Phantom Zone; rather,
they seem to reveal alternate universe versions of Rick and Morty.
And it wouldn't be the show we all know and love if at least one of these alternate realities
didn't show Rick and Morty as superheroes.
As the pair trek through the field of crystals, Rick is quick to point out the crystal that
shows the reality in which they are both versions of the half-vampiric, vampire-killing Marvel
hero Blade, famously played on screen by Wesley Snipes.
This seems to be a clever reference to the bloody rave scene from Blade.
The Blade-universe crystal is only on screen for a few seconds in the Rick and Morty season
5 trailer, but it isn't the only one that bears weight.
Way in the back of the same shot is another significant crystal — one that references
Rick and Morty's origins.
In the crystal, Morty's wearing a blue shirt and a red vest, while Rick still rocks his
signature white lab coat.
If, upon closer inspection, this looks familiar to fans, it's because they've almost definitely
seen these exact iterations of Rick and Morty before.
This crystal's reality is a callback to "The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti
," made by Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland in 2006.
This very-NSFW short parodies the classic Back to the Future film series, and ultimately
formed the basis for Rick and Morty.
"Guess you guys aren't ready for that yet.
But your kids are going to love it."
Part of the fun of Rick and Morty is all the clever satire of popular sci-fi and fantasy
properties, and season 5 looks to continue this tradition by taking aim at two IPs in
particular.
A common sight in the trailer is the Smith-Sanchez family geared up in a set of matching, color-coded
suits.
This feels like a clear reference to the classic '80s cartoon Voltron.
The trailer also seems to give a hat-tip to another popular kids TV series: Transformers.
Early on in the Rick and Morty season 5 trailer, we see Rick's ship facing off against a humanoid
robot that bears a striking resemblance to a Transformer, with car parts making up certain
portions of its body.
At several points in the trailer, Rick and Beth are seen wearing some gruesome costumes
that look straight out of a horror movie.
Fittingly, they are from a horror movie — or rather, a horror franchise.
These outfits prove that the series will reference the late '80s horror film Hellraiser in at
least one upcoming episode.
The whole universe in which Rick and Beth wear these costumes appears to be a parody
of the Hellraiser world, and the get-ups look like mildly toned-down versions of what the
film's extra-dimensional Cenobite beings wear.
The darts in Beth's face feel like a clever twist on the iron nails that the film's main
antagonist, Pinhead, has all over his face.
Additionally, in the background of one scene from the trailer are two creatures who appear
to be riffs on Hellraiser's creepier Cenobites.
In particular, the one with no eyes and who bears all of its teeth looks exactly like
Chatterer, Hellraiser's right-hand man.
The one between Rick and Beth, with half of its face splayed open, could be a very subtle
reference to Angelique from Hellraiser: Bloodline, though it's more likely that this one is a
Rick and Morty original.
The thought of his longtime crush Jessica being a significant part of his life is enough
to make Morty scream until he passes out.
That thought will apparently become a reality in Rick and Morty season 5, as the trailer
shows two separate instances in which Jessica appears as part of Smith-Sanchez family adventures.
Though she has been seen in missions with the crew before, some were non-canonical and
these season 5 moments hold much more weight.
Early in the trailer, there's a scene involving giant, Transformers-esque robots.
Upon first glance, it looks like Rick, Morty, and Summer are in the battle arena, but it's
actually Rick, Morty, and Jessica.
Why would Jessica be involved in such a strange quest?
The answer lies in the first-look clip from season 5, the same one that revealed Mr. Nimbus.
In that clip, Morty calls Jessica and confesses his affection for her.
Much to Morty's surprise, Jessica admits she has feelings for Morty too, and invites him
to watch a movie with her that night.
Though it's not explained in the new trailer, that moment should happen in season 5 and
mark the beginning of a relationship between Jessica and Morty.
Of course, the most important detail in the whole trailer comes right at the end: New
episodes of Rick and Morty will be portaling into this universe on Adult Swim on Sunday,
June 20 at 11 PM ET.
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