Justin Roiland quits Hulus Solar Opposites Koala Man

Justin Roiland quits Hulu’s ‘Solar Opposites’, ‘Koala Man’

Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites co-creator Justin Roiland was dropped from the latter series after domestic violence charges against him were revealed.

Hulu, which airs Solar Opposites, is also removing Roiland from its recently debuted series Koala Man, in which he serves as executive producer and voice actor. 20th Television Animation, where Roiland had an overall deal and is producing both series, also cut ties.

“We have ended our collaboration with Justin Roiland,” Hulu and 20th TV Animation said in a statement.

The decision by the two Disney entities comes a day after Adult Swim severed ties with Roiland. He co-developed Solar Opposites with fellow Rick and Morty Mike McMahan and also voices one of the show’s main characters. Solar Opposites has aired for three seasons so far and will be renewed for a fifth.

Koala Man, which premiered on January 9, comes from creator Michael Cusack and showrunners Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Both they and Solar Opposites are to continue without the participation of Roiland.

Roiland has pleaded not guilty to charges of domestic violence based on a 2020 incident in Orange County, California. His attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, called media coverage of the charges “inaccurate” and said in a statement: “To be clear, Not only is Justin innocent, but we expect this matter to be dismissed on course as soon as possible.” the prosecution has completed its methodical review of the evidence.”

Roiland was charged with one felony count of assault and one count of false imprisonment through threat, violence, fraud and/or deception following a January 2020 incident involving an unnamed woman he was dating. The case has since slowly moved through the court system; NBC News was the first to publicly report on the case on Jan. 12, when Roiland was in court for a pretrial hearing. He is scheduled to return to court for another hearing on April 27.

Hulu, 20th Television Animation and Adult Swim initially did not comment when the allegations against Roiland came to light. That lasted until Tuesday, when Adult Swim issued a one-line statement saying the Warner Bros. Discovery cable outlet had “ended its association with Justin Roiland.” He will no longer work in the Rick and Morty writing room, and his voice roles – he plays both title characters – will be recast as the show continues through a 70-episode Adult Swim order that was placed in 2018. Forty episodes remain in this order, which will take Rick and Morty through a 10th season. Co-creator Dan Harmon will be the series’ sole showrunner.

Roiland has also quit Squanch Games, the video game developer he founded in 2016.