Although the show still hasn’t released a Halloween episode after over ten years on the air, Rick and Morty season 8’s first fully animated promo promises a much more unexpected holiday special. There are a handful of Rick and Morty Christmas episodes, including the show’s third outing ever, “Anatomy Park.” The series hit the ground running in its first season and “Anatomy Park,” which blended elements of Jurassic Park and Fantastic Voyage with a jarring festive setting, was an early warning of just how surreal, gross, and silly things would get.

Rick and Morty features plentiful body horror and has regularly borrowed plots, characters, and scenes from Stephen King, Hellraiser, David Cronenberg, and slasher movies alike. As such, it is striking that the show has made it to Rick and Morty’s season 7 ending alone referenced The Twilight Zone and 2009’s horror comedy The Hole, but the show still hasn’t acknowledged the most horror-centric holiday of them all. Bizarrely, the first fully animated promo for Rick and Morty season 8 proves its next outing seemingly continues this trend.

Rick and Morty Season 8 Features An Easter Special

The Adult Swim Series Previously Included Numerous Christmas Episodes

Instead of a Halloween special, Rick and Morty season 8 will feature the show’s first Easter episode. The clip sees Rick and Morty explore a town full of Easter-obsessed cultists, only to be beset by "Space Christians” during their mission. While Rick and Morty season 8 promises a time-travel plot too, it is tough to tell whether that storyline will intersect with the plot of this outing. The promo doesn’t reveal much of the Easter special’s story, although it does slyly joke about how unlikely an Easter special is for the anarchic sci-fi sitcom.

Christmas TV specials are a much more well-established tradition than Easter episodes.

Although Rick and Morty does have a handful of Christmas episodes already, yuletide TV specials are a much more well-established tradition than Easter episodes. Over the years, a few shows have pulled off Easter episodes, but these mainly tend to be children's shows. Both South Park and The Simpsons have three Easter episodes apiece, but it is important to note that there are 783 episodes of the latter and 328 of the former. As such, it is fair to say those shows have exploded every holiday, and both have far more Halloween specials than Easter outings.

Moreover, Easter is more closely associated with Christianity than Christmas in broader cultural . After all, Christmas has been observed as a secular holiday for over a century, according to the Rick and Morty season 7's Rick character development was a surprise, I still didn’t see this particular twist coming in season 8. An Easter episode is the last thing I expected the show to attempt for numerous reasons, not least a controversial character's return.

Rick and Morty’s Easter Episode Makes One Character Comeback Likely

Jesus Appeared In Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode 6

Rick and Morty has featured Jesus as a character before, in season 4, episode 6, “The Never Ricking Morty.” This self-referential meta-episode saw Rick and Morty try to escape a villain who attempted to hijack their dramatic potential to power a literal story device, something Rick derailed by turning to prayer. Rick and Morty realized that characters relying on divine intervention, or a literal "Deus ex machina," was sufficiently lame storytelling to grind the plot to a screeching halt.

it is hard to see how Rick and Morty season 8’s Easter episode can avoid mentioning Jesus.

Since Rick and Morty already itted that Jesus is a hard character to incorporate into a fictional plot, it is tough to see why the show would be eager to bring him back. That said, it is equally hard to see how Rick and Morty season 8’s Easter episode can avoid mentioning Jesus. “The Never Ricking Morty” is one of my favorite Rick and Morty episodes, and even with that considered, I can't see how the show would pull off this particularly divisive character comeback.

Rick and Morty Season 8’s Easter Episode Continues A Strange Trend

The Series Has Aired Holiday Specials At The Wrong Time Before

What makes Rick and Morty’s Easter episode even more inscrutable is its timing. Unlike the show's two most recent holiday specials, which aired around Christmas, Rick and Morty season 8’s Easter episode will arrive over a month after Easter 2025. Like season 6’s Thanksgiving episode, which came out in July, this outing clearly isn't concerned about odd, ill-fitting timing.

This isn’t a major issue on its own, but it does make it weirder that Rick and Morty has never attempted a Halloween special. One could argue that the show’s release schedule didn’t facilitate this, but the willingness to release an Easter episode in late May (at the earliest) proves this isn’t the problem. Clearly, Rick and Morty season 8 simply has more to say about Easter than the holiday that seems to fit the show’s tone and content more closely.

Source: Encyclopaedia Brittanica