“Rick And Morty” Returning Soon? Adult Swim Cartoon Series Debuted Its Season 3 Premiere On April Fools’ Day, But The Rest Won’t Come In Until Much Later

Ever since Adult Swim confirmed in January via a press release that popular cartoon series “Rick and Morty” does not have a premiere date set, a Twitter announcement on April 1 revealed that it has released its premiere episode on the network and on its official digital streaming site.

“New Episode of RICK AND MORTY airing NOW thru MIDNIGHT (ET/PT) and ONLINE at http://www.adultswim.com/streams ,” the tweet read, which came with a screengrab no doubt from the new season.

However, some sites caught on with the Adult Swim’s non-traditional marketing. Alison Herman for The Ringer wrote, “The page on Adult Swim’s website airing the livestream was winkingly labeled “April Fools,” but this was for real. The network showed the first episode of the new season in a constant loop until midnight on each coast. (There’s still no proper premiere date, though a commercial-break announcement said more will come this summer.) The stunt was an anti–April Fools’ joke, all the surprise with none of the forced dad humor: The joke was that we’d think it was a joke before realizing this was legit. The byzantine gag successfully channeled “Rick and Morty”’s head-spinning nonconformity into a release strategy.”

Although the premiere episode is no longer streaming, it may be enough to stave off fans who have waited over 18 months to see the show’s return. Polygon said the show’s delay to return to the network has caused a rift between the fans and creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland. On the other hand, Katharine Trendacosta for Gizmodo posits that the showing of the rest of the episodes might be longer than anticipated, which is between mid-May to late June.