Rick and Morty season 3 trailer
A screenshot from a trailer for Rick and Morty season 3 Adult Swim / Youtube

In the lead-up to the third season premiere of "Rick and Morty," co-creator Justin Roiland and Adult Swim have released a series of bizarre, mind-altering promos. A new trailer to hype the third season of the critically-acclaimed animated series shows Morty go on a psychedelic voyage.

Morty, the grandson of mad scientist Rick, drops an Erlenmeyer flask containing LSD (to the floor) before experiencing hallucinations and drug-induced visions. In his visions, Morty pictures himself being murdered by Rick in a range of unorthodox ways, from having his head chewed off or sacrificed in a Mayan temple in the midst of his entire family.

The opening episode of season three titled "The Rickshank Rickdemption" was suddenly released on April Fools’ Day after fans were in the dark on the launch date of Rick and Morty's latest instalment. During the episode, the Galactic Federation invades Earth which leads to Morty and Summer summoning the Council of Ricks in pursuit of their imprisoned grandfather. In trademark Rick fashion, Rick C-137 transports his mind into one of the other Ricks before invading the meeting and killing his doppelgangers.

During a recent interview, co-creator Dan Harmon explained that the opening episode was used to advance pending storylines from the second season. "In (episode) 301, what you see is, it's like mowing the lawn for him to disassemble the entire galactic federation, and he's doing it so he can get back to his comfortable life. And he resents Jerry for making him do that and therefore eliminates Jerry from his life. It's pretty easy to say in the writers' room -- and I don't foresee any trouble. We all know that Rick wouldn't vote for anybody. He wouldn't care at all," Harmon told Vice.

According to Den of Geek, it’s possible that "The Rickshank Rickdemption" could be re-aired on July 30, the official launch date of Rick and Morty season 3. "If this premiere date means we’ll be re-watching the season premiere we already saw or if we’ll get maybe two new episodes that day?"

Rick and Morty season 3 release date confirmed

It was recently confirmed that the third season will comprise of 10 episodes. Rick and Morty season 3 episode 2 titled "Rickmancing the Stone" will air on July 30 at 11:30 p.m. EST. The episode is a pun on the 1984 action-adventure romantic comedy "Romancing the Stone."

Rick and Morty season 3 trailer: