'Rick and Morty' season 3 release date: This fan-favourite character won't be returning

"Rick and Morty" has been off the air for nearly 18 months. And it seems like the wait for the third season is nearly over with the second episode titled "Rickmancing the Stone" expected to air sometime in the summer. The first episode, titled "The Rickshank Rickdemption," was suddenly released on April Fools' Day after fans were kept in the dark about the launch date of the new season.

Adult Swim's impromptu release saw steady progression from season 2 storylines. After the Galactic Federation invaded Earth, genius siblings Summer and Morty summoned the Council of Ricks in pursuit of their imprisoned grandfather. Rick C-137, in trademark Rick fashion, managed to transport his mind into one of the other Ricks to crash the meeting of the council before killing the rest of his doppelgangers.

The episode also teased a brewing rivalry between Rick and Morty, the two primary characters, after Morty and his sister set out to rescue their genius grandfather. “Who's stupid now, bi*ch?” reacted an annoyed Morty after he shot Rick in the head with a fake gun. After realising that it was a fake gun, Morty mumbled, “Uh, good thing I saw that note.”

There was also another subplot that saw Morty explaining to his sister that “Rick is hardly a hero who bails on things and leaves whole worlds behind." The siblings then set off to rescue Rick from the Galactic Federation prison.

'Rick and Morty' season 3 won't feature Mr. Meeseeks

Meanwhile, Ryan Ridley, one of the writers on Rick and Morty, recently told the Y Combinator podcast that Mr. Meeseeks won't be making a comeback in the third season. The blue humanoid creature became a fan-favourite during the show's opening season but was not featured in season 2.

“We’ve talked about how we’d bring back Meeseeks, and if we were… if we’re going to bother to do it. We’d want to really explore a different aspect of it. But that’s one way to do it, right there, is to show what the inside of a Meeseeks box looks like. That would have been really cool," said Rildley, via Inverse.

During a 2015 Comic Con, co-creator Dan Harmon made a “personal promise” that Mr. Meeseeks would return for Rick and Morty Season 3. “I’m going to force Mr. Meeseeks into Season 3. There was a heavy impulse in Season 2 to not call anything back from Season 1." However, it seems like Mr. Meeseeks won't be featured during any of the remaining 13 episodes of Rick and Morty Season 3.

'Rick and Morty' season 3 release date: 13 more episodes from July

To promote the third season of the animated series, a giant Rick is reportedly going to drive across the United States this summer in his "RickMobile." Rick and Morty season 3 episode 2 titled "Rickmancing the Stone" will air sometime over the summer. If the previous season is anything to go by, episode two could air in July.