Rick and Morty season 9 wraps up on July 26, but the closing credits won’t leave fans hanging for long. Immediately after the finale, Adult Swim rolls out President Curtis, the show’s first-ever spinoff — and it’s a very different beast from its parent.
Where Rick and Morty riffs on Doctor Who as a nihilistic family sitcom, President Curtis plays out like a workplace comedy stitched together from The X-Files. The premise: U.S. President Andre Curtis (Keith David), a recurring foil to Rick Sanchez, now has to defend America from a tangle of occult and alien threats — without the luxury of hopping to another universe when things go sideways.
Showrunner Dan Harmon says he deliberately reworked Curtis for the spinoff. “He’s a much better person,” Harmon explained. “He’s less motivated by the numbers than he is in the Rick and Morty universe, where we see him sort of betray himself and others for likes and subscribes.” This version is a recently divorced former Marine who, per co-showrunner James Siciliano, “doesn’t believe in playing 4D chess with this shit. He doesn’t believe in playing politics. He’s dedicated to the job.”
Curtis isn’t going it alone. His new team is built as a deliberate trio, balanced the way Harmon describes Kirk, Spock and McCoy in the original Star Trek — though he blends the archetypes rather than splitting them cleanly into logic and emotion:
- Chief of Staff Banks (Stephanie Beatriz), a cyborg who can download new skills straight into her brain, and the most idealistic of the group about government service.
- Special Agent O’Doyle (Jim Rash), a half-leprechaun bodyguard who reads auras, carries specialized ammo for monster-hunting, believes in hierarchy, and hates deception and magic thanks to firsthand experience.
Yes, Rick and Morty make a cameo in the premiere — which screened at the Annecy Festival — but it’s mostly a meta gag about spinoffs and how much gas is left in the original show. Beyond Curtis himself, this is a fresh cast with its own arcs.
The stories stay grounded, relatively speaking. The pilot pits Curtis against the CIA as they scramble to cover up what really happened during the first moon landing. Later episodes promise occult rituals at Camp David, a secret prison in the Bermuda Triangle, and France attempting to renegotiate the Louisiana Purchase. “It’s still weird sci-fi action, but we’re able to do more terrestrial things,” Siciliano said. “Rick and Morty can be nihilistic and nothing matters because it’s multiversal. This show is more grounded, and because of Curtis’ job, everything matters so much to him.”
The upshot: you don’t need to have watched Rick and Morty to jump in. Curtis and his crew have plenty of high-tech and magical gear, but they’re a long way from Rick’s godlike toolkit — and that’s the point.
President Curtis premieres at 11:30 p.m. ET on July 26 on Adult Swim, with the episode landing on HBO Max the following day.
