Scott Marder Teases Rick And Morty Season 9 Episode 3 Trader Joe's Fender Bender

Scott Marder said rick and morty season 9 episode 3, "Rick-Fu Hustle," starts with a minor fender bender in a Trader Joe's parking lot. The showrunner and executive producer said the collision involves a kung-fu master and sets the episode's story in motion.

Season 9 has already arrived as a 10-episode run, and Marder said the third episode begins from a place that felt, in his words, "familiar and felt relatable." He also said, "Like, how cool would it be if an episode could just start from a minor fender bender?"

Scott Marder on Rick-Fu Hustle

Marder said, "In this case, it just so happens to be with a kung-fu master, that gets the whole story rolling." He added, "A lot of times those are really joyful starts to episodes, things that start as small as that."

The setup gives the episode a very specific launch point: an ordinary parking lot dispute that turns on the presence of a kung-fu master. That is the clearest detail disclosed about the plot of the third episode, and it places the season's creative hook in a recognizable everyday setting rather than a larger-scale premise.

Dan Harmon on Season 9

Dan Harmon said the season is "a celebration," and that he is excited to see the fan reaction to the evolution episode. He called that episode "a little bit of a departure and an experimental way of telling a story," and said, "I'll be proud of it regardless."

Harmon also said, "It's been a long, turbulent ride," and added, "The show's been on for a long time." He said, "Scott came on board to run it, and it was not a rewarding job to be brought into it."

Season 9 Morale

Marder said, "Everyone was so grateful that this show held together and weathered all the storms it did internally." He added, "The morale was through the roof, and you could feel it in every department, and it bled into every episode."

He said the season "doesn't feel like the ninth season of a show; it feels like the third season of a show." For viewers, that is the strongest clue to what season 9 is trying to do: keep the run moving with a lighter, more immediate creative feel while episode 3 opens with a small crash and escalates from there.