'Rick and Morty' season 3 release date rumors update 2016: Season 3 premiere date unknown; Dan Harmon addresses fan theories

Though previous reports have indicated that "Rick and Morty" season 3 will debut before the year ends, Adult Swim has yet to announce the official release date for the next season of the animated sitcom.

In September, "Rick and Morty" writers Erica Rosbe and Sarah Carbiener appeared on the "Chicks Who Script" podcast, where they confirmed that they had wrapped up the scripts for "Rick and Morty" season 3 back in August. They also said that they were expecting a screening of season 3 in the production office within a week or two.

While the writers confirmed that all the episodes have been written and at least some have been animated, it may still take months before the entire "Rick and Morty" season 3 is ready for airing. Cinema Blend notes that the animation process for the popular animated sci-fi comedy is made complicated by the unorthodox "retroscripting" method it uses. With this technique, the animators work on what is mainly ad-libbed dialogue. While this is great for the show, it is extremely difficult for the animators.

As such, it is difficult to speculate on the premiere date of "Rick and Morty" season 3, even with the update offered by Rosbe and Carbiener. Co-creator Dan Harmon hasn't been much help in this department either. In a recent Reddit AMA session, Harmon talked about the show but claimed that he didn't know anything about the season 3 premiere date.

Nonetheless, he did write at length about the various "Rick and Morty" fan theories, including the ones about Rick being Goldenfold in disguise and about all the episodes being a simulation, saying that they all struck him as fun. "I think they're just blissfully analytical and love decoding stuff and I salute them but I haven't seen a 'theory' that I truly love,'" he wrote.

Harmon also talked about the mystery of what Rick keeps in his flask, saying, "I tend to assume vodka and I know it seems unlikely that Rick wouldn't use sci-fi tech to somehow augment whatever he drinks but I think in [R]ick's mind part of the 'addiction' to the flask of good old fashioned booze is that it anchors his identity..."

According to Harmon, while there's a popular theory that Rick is drinking some type of cognitive enhancer, possibly even the mega seed juice from the pilot, he thinks this is unlikely.

"I think the reason he doesn't do that is because he's a little afraid he'll lose sight of who he is," he explained.

"Rick and Morty" season 3 is currently without an official release date.