Deploy the GIF of Denzel Washington looking relieved: When Christopher Lloyd’s name trended on Twitter on Friday, it was not because anything bad had happened to the 82-year-old star of Taxi, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, and Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Quite the opposite. The beloved actor appeared to be back as his most famous character, Doc Brown from the Back To The Future franchise.
But no, in the new promo, he’s not playing Doc Brown. He’s drunken, profane, dimension-hopping scientist Rick Sanchez. And with him, as he steps through a cartoonish portal, isn’t Michael J. Fox but Jaeden Martell (best known from the recent It adaptation) as Rick’s grandson Morty. Why this is all a clever (and extremely effective) marketing stunt for Rick and Morty. Behold!
Those versed in Rick and Morty lore know that the wildly successful animated comedy originated from a Back To The Future parody, so seeing Lloyd belch like Grandpa Rick is certainly a long time comin’. Whether Lloyd and Martell will appear in the new episode of the fifth season (debuting Sunday) and what “we’re home” means (beyond a Star Wars reference) remains to be seen.
Those really versed in Rick and Morty lore know that “C-132” in the tweet refers to which universe of fractured reality this moment is set in. The main universe from the show is C-137. However, the Rick and Morty characters in the tie-in comics are from C-132. Or at least they were originally before different writers came on board. (Naturally, there are some glorious arguments about this on some of the more hair-splitting message boards.) Either way, C-132 was definitively destroyed in issue #14, which goes to prove what any nerd worth his blemflarcks already knows: Tie-in comics are soft canon.
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