Rick and Morty dropped the first season of a potential major new villain for the animated series with the post-credits scene for Season 8’s finale. Rick and Morty has been relatively lower stakes this season compared to the last few years as it avoided much of the greater serialization that had been seen since Season 5. Rick and Morty Season 8 had instead focused on smaller stories with the family, and revealed how each of their changes through the years now impacts them moving forward. But it doesn’t mean that there still aren’t teases of big plans for the future, however.
Rick and Morty Season 8’s finale brought back a surprising character from the previous season and led to a new conflict between Beth and Rick, and with it established a new emotional core for the father and daughter moving forward. It wrapped up a lot of the work the season had done with its prior episodes, and seemed to usher in a new era for this family. But the post-credits scene from the episode sets up something ominous, however, with the return of Mr. Poopybutthole.
What’s Going On With Mr. Poopybutthole?
When we had last seen Mr. Poopybutthole, he had used Rick’s portal gun to head to a universe where a version of himself was still happily living together with his wife and child. Quickly replacing this other variant, Mr. Poopybutthole seemed to be able to steal the happy ending that he had been trying to force during the Season 7 premiere, “How Poopy Got His Poop Back.” But with the post-credits scene for Rick and Morty Season 8’s finale, “Hot Rick,” the character returns to react to the events of the season once more like he’s done in the past few seasons thus far. Something is different this time though.
It’s now made clear that this multiverse variant of his wife has discovered that this Mr. Poopbutthole is not the one she married, and was even able to figure out that he’s not even from their universe. All the while, Mr. Poopybutthole himself seems content to just keep operating as normal and react to the events of the season. It’s teased that he’ll be disposed of in a rather ominous way, but this might also be setting the stage for the next major villain we’ll see return in the later seasons. Which would be perfectly hilarious choice of character for a wacky series like Rick and Morty.
Is Mr. Poopybutthole Rick and Morty’s Next Villain?
Funny enough, Rick and Morty series-co-creator Dan Harmon and showrunner Scott Marder have debunked Mr. Poopybutthole as a potential villain leading into Season 8, noting how it wasn’t what their plan was for the character. It’s harder to believe that after this post-credits scene, however, as it now seems like he’s the core thread that the animated series will keep checking in with as each season continues. Something is building with him in the background, and will eventually explode on the way towards Rick and Morty Season 12.
There’s also the question of what that means for the variant of Mr. Poopybutthole’s wife seen here as well. She’s the one being teased with plans to do something to his universal invader, and has been spending all this time trying to figure out what’s going on. This character might also be the one as a new villain mucking up the multiverse, so either way, fans will need to keep an eye on what could be coming next.
