Dan Harmon Says 'President Curtis' Is Its Own Beast, Not Just More Rick And Morty

Adult Swim's new animated spin-off launches July 26 with a creator-endorsed argument that it stands apart from its parent show — and Harmon has a very specific TV comparison to make.

President Curtis premieres on Adult Swim on July 26, 2026.
Dan Harmon describes the tonal gap between Rick and Morty and President Curtis as 'like Doctor Who and The X-Files.'
Harmon developed the spin-off alongside co-creator James Siciliano.
The show centers on Curtis, a character from the Rick and Morty universe, now elevated to the presidency.
Adult Swim is expanding its animated universe as Rick and Morty heads into later seasons.

There is a version of every animated spin-off that feels like a side door left open by accident — a supporting character handed a pilot, a world stretched one room too far. Dan Harmon would like you to know President Curtis is not that.

The Adult Swim series, launching July 26, follows Curtis — a figure from the Rick and Morty universe — into the Oval Office, and Harmon has been precise about what separates it from the show that built his cable reputation. Speaking to Deadline ahead of the premiere, Harmon and co-creator James Siciliano reached for a comparison that signals tone more than plot: Doctor Who versus The X-Files. One is sprawling, absurdist, and cosmically untethered. The other is procedural, paranoid, and locked into a specific institutional setting. The implication is that President Curtis plants its flag in the second camp — tighter, more grounded in its premise, even if the premise involves a cartoon president in an Adult Swim universe.

Siciliano, who developed the series alongside Harmon, has described the show as genuinely standalone — not a continuity exercise for Rick and Morty completionists, but something a viewer could walk into cold. That pitch matters commercially. Spin-offs that require homework tend to top out at the existing fanbase; spin-offs that build their own on-ramp can find a second audience.

Rick and Morty is currently in production on later seasons under its long-running Adult Swim deal. The Curtis spin-off represents the first time the property has formally branched rather than simply continued. Whether the Doctor Who-to-X-Files comparison holds up across a full season is a question July 26 will begin to answer.