‘Solar Opposites’ Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan Tell the Odd Story of the ‘Solar’ Holiday Special

The Solar Opposites have returned to Hulu, and they’ve learned nothing. This week marks the premiere of Solar Opposites Season 2, an installment that’s crazier, wilder, and even less predictable than the first season of this bonkers Hulu original.

We’re talking about sci-fi nonsense. We’re talking a full-on standalone drama about all of the shrunken people trapped in Yumyulack’s (Sean Giambrone) and Jesse’s (Mary Mack) wall. We’re talking about a secret Solar Opposites Holiday Special, that is in fact happening. And Solar creators Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan talked to Decider about it all, while also giving us a sneak peek about what’s ahead for Rick and Morty Season 5.

Decider: You’ve seen the public reaction to Solar Opposites Season 1. How are Solar Opposites fans different than Rick and Morty fans?

Mike McMahan: They’re all awful. They’re monsters. No, I’m just kidding.

Justin Roiland: I don’t know. It’s funny because I’ve sort of pulled back from all — I don’t want to say this in a bad way because I’m obviously super appreciative of all the people who like the stuff that I make and we make. But I’ve sort of checked out a little bit from from the socials and I’ve stopped reading replies. There are just too many vocal, angry, mean people that I was like, “I don’t need to.” I found my life got a lot happier when I made that conscious choice. So as a result of that I lost my connection to a better understanding of what the fandoms are like in a deeper sense. So I can’t even answer the question.

McMahan: I think from what I’ve seen with Rick and Morty, at this point, Solar fans are like Season 1 Rick and Morty fans. When we first made Rick and Morty we saw people would find Rick and Morty and they would want to share it with their friends. They’d be like, “You’ve got to see this. This is fucking good.” Now Rick and Morty is so invasive, so many people have told their friends to watch it that Rick and Morty’s almost like, it’s become this thing that’s bigger than what it is. Everybody kind of knows about it.

When the first Rick and Morty T-shirt was online that like a Redbubble person, like a portal themed Rick and Morty shirt, I remember opening it up in the writers room and being like, “Look at this! Can you imagine a Rick and Morty T-shirt?” And now it’s like saying, “Can you think of a SpongeBob toy?” For Solar what I find is that people who find Solar, a lot of people see it and they say, “All right I think I know what this show is.” But then the people who stick with it are like, “Wait, what is this crazy wonderful thing with these two men aliens that love each other and they have replicants?” It’s impossible to describe if you don’t know it. And the people who are fans of the show, I think they really love it because it doesn’t feel packaged and canned — not that Rick and Morty does, but it feels a little grody and fun and surprising. When I see on Tumblr especially, the art I see on Tumblr, people really love these characters. They really love them.

Roiland: There’s one artist in particular that I have seen that blows me away. I was thinking, “Oh this would actually be a really good artist to do the comic.”

McMahan: I know who you’re talking about.

Roiland: They do art all the time.

McMahan: Almost with pastels, right?

Roiland: Yeah, it’s pastel color but it’s on model enough. It’s really cool. One last thing I’ll say about this is I think that any given group, there’s going to be good, bad, and ugly in anything. Like everyone likes Oreos. But how are you drawing a line around that as a specific group? But for me I did a couple conventions way before pandemic. Just to see what it was like, I did a few. It was really incredible to meet so many fans in person. This was before Solar, so it was all Rick and Morty fans. Everyone was so kind and nice and just normal, you know what I mean? Just sweet. I left those experiences really feeling like the internet just skews reality, and I think it’s making the human race go fucking insane right now.

McMahan: But Solar Opposites fans on Twitter and Tumblr, they all seem so generous and pure of heart.

Roiland: Don’t forget what you just said. It was like that with Season 1. Because you’re right, you’re right. Season 1 of Rick and Morty that’s how it was, you know what I mean? … If Solar gets big enough, you’re going to have the good, the bad, the ugly all of it.

I also wanted to talk about “The Unlikely Demise of Terry’s Favorite Shot Glass,” which is the show’s first episode completely about The Wall. Where did the idea for a full-drama Wall saga come from?

McMahan: Justin and I, when we originally developed the show, knew we wanted to check in with The Wall, but we thought it would be on a broadcast network, not a streamer, and that we were going to have to sneak in Wall episodes, like beg them to let us do them. We wanted to do something like The Wire where every time, every season it would change but also the original concept was take a little sci-fi moment from an episode but let it keep living forever and follow that and write up to it instead of treating it as a bit. When we sold the show to Hulu, in the pitch we changed it and were ready to have to sneak it in and fight for it. When we pitched it to Hulu we were like, “Also like half the show is going to be this big drama about the wall!” And Hulu was like, “All right, great. That sounds great.” It just freed us to get to do it.

Have you guys ever discussed having a Wall spinoff show? It could definitely stand on its own two legs.

McMahan: Justin, what do you think? Would that work?

Roiland: Mike has said this many times. It’s like the peanut butter and the jelly. I feel like, for certain number of fans, they probably would love that. But I think The Wall is as special as it is because you got the alien stuff sitting next to it. There’s something about it. They compliment each other in such a special kind of awesome way… Obviously you do a full Wall episode and it works, right? But that’s kind of us sprinkling our way up to that these seasons. But we talked about it as a joke more than anything.

McMahan: We like the balance of it. Too much of a good thing is going to make it get stale fast. Solar Opposites is all about playing with expectations. The second you think, like someone was just saying, “Oh so every season Episode 7 is going to be a big all-Wall episode.” And Justin and I smiled because we’ve already wrote the animatic on Season 3 and we were like, “Oh they like The Wall, huh?” [Laughs] It’s like when you catch a kid smoking and you’re like, “We’re going to make you smoke the whole pack.”

We love The Wall too. But a standalone Wall removes the irony that the Wall exists at all. So it’s always going to be there. It’s always going to be a part of Solar Opposites, and it lets us cosplay as drama writers with a bunch of other comedy writers we like. We have a blast doing it.

I also wanted to talk about the final episode, “The Solar Opposites Almost Get an Xbox”, which ends on a shoutout for the Solar Opposites Holiday Special. Is that actually happening?

McMahan: Justin, how good is that episode?

Roiland: It’s really good. It’s my favorite episode of Season 2. It’s happening, yeah. There’s a sci-fi device that’s important to the episode that I could see us doing a lot with down the road. It’s a good, fucking funny premise.

McMahan: The episode is done. It’s done but we’re holding it until Christmas. Because it is a standalone Peanuts holiday special style holiday special and it is so fucking funny.

Roiland: It’s for Jesus! It’s for his birthday.

McMahan: Truly Jesus would love it. No, I’m begging Hulu to advertise it, put it in between the Santa Claus and Rudolph or whatever they’re going to be airing. It is so fucking funny and crazy and weird that I’m imagining a family sitting down to watch it and being like, “Children get out of the room immediately.”

Roiland: Cover your eyes.

McMahan: But we had a blast. It was really like somebody made the mistake of hiring me, Justin, and Josh Bycel — my co-showrunner on Solar — really letting us make a Christmas special. But the funny secret is we wrote all eight episodes of Season 2 and I just called Marci [Proietto], our executive at Fox who covers animation, and I was like, “I think I’ve got a holiday episode in me.”

Roiland: You just called them out of the blue and asked them for one extra episode?

McMahan: She was like, “Episodes cost a lot of money.” And I was like, “Let’s just see if they’ll go for it.” And they were like, “Yeah, let’s fucking do it.” So it was unplanned, really fun, and it might be our funniest episode of the season. But everyone has to wait for it.

Last question, can you tell me anything about Rick and Morty Season 5?

McMahan: I can’t. I haven’t been there for years. Justin, do it.

Roiland: It’s really good. It’s a good, good season. All I can say is that there’s some canonical stuff that’s pretty exciting that people are going to be really excited for. But that’s probably the most I can say. Launch date, I don’t have any real solid deets. But I know we’re pretty — it’s getting closer and closer to seeing the light of day.

McMahan: Sorry Justin you cut out for a second. Did you just say people won’t understand Rick and Morty Season 5 unless they’ve seen all of Solar Opposites?

Roiland: Yeah, you have to watch all of Solar to understand Season 5.

McMahan: But just to be clear we’re lying. So put that in there.

Roiland: No, it’s a good season. It’s fantastic. It’s an absolutely fantastic season.

Watch Solar Opposites on Hulu