Rick and Morty spinoff President Curtis premieres in 3 weeks — what you need to know

Rick and Morty season 9 ends on July 26, but fans won’t have to wait long for more wild animated sci-fi adventures. The season finale will be followed by the premiere of President Curtis, a spinoff following U.S. President Andre Curtis (Keith David) and his efforts to protect America from a mix of occult and alien threats. Here’s what we know about the series and how you can watch it.

Do you need to watch Rick and Morty to watch President Curtis?

Rick and Morty make a cameo in the President Curtis premiere, which was streamed at Annecy Festival, mostly to make a meta crack at the nature of spinoffs and how much life is left in their own long-running show. But aside from Curtis, who has been recurring foil for Rick Sanchez for years, the spinoff mostly follows a new cast of characters with their own arcs. In fact, showrunner Dan Harmon said that he changed Curtis’ character for the spinoff to make him more sympathetic.

“He’s a much better person,” Harmon said. “He’s less motivated by the numbers than he is in the Rick and Morty universe, where we see him sort of betray himself and others for likes and subscribes.”

What is President Curtis about?

If Rick and Morty is a family sitcom inspired by Doctor Who, President Curtis is a workplace sitcom based on The X-Files. Curtis is joined by new chief of staff Banks (Stephanie Beatriz), a cyborg capable of downloading new skills into her brain, and his half-leprechaun bodyguard Special Agent O’Doyle (Jim Rash), who can read auras and carries around specialized ammo for dealing with monsters.

Harmon said he designed the three characters to balance each other in the same way Captain Kirk, Spock, and McCoy did in the original Star Trek. But he blends archetypes together to avoid having one character be fully logical while the other is more emotional. Banks is the most idealistic of the group when it comes to government service, while O’Doyle is a big believer in hierarchy and hates deception and magic because of his own experience with it. Curtis himself is a recently divorced former Marine who will do whatever it takes to protect America and the rest of the world.

“He’s an outside-the-system guy,” co-showrunner James Siciliano said. “He doesn’t believe in playing 4D chess with this shit. He doesn’t believe in playing politics. He’s dedicated to the job.”

While Curtis and his team have plenty of high-tech and magical resources at their disposal, they’re much less powerful than Rick Sanchez and can’t just move to another universe if things get too bad. The pilot involves Curtis getting into a fight with the CIA, who are trying to cover up what really happened during the first moon landing. Other episodes will involve occult rituals at Camp David, a secret prison in the Bermuda Triangle, and France trying to renegotiate the Louisiana Purchase.

“It’s still weird sci-fi action, but we’re able to do more terrestrial things,” Siciliano said. “Rick and Morty can be nihilistic and nothing matters because it’s multiversal. This show is more grounded, and because of Curtis’ job, everything matters so much to him.”

How can you watch President Curtis?

President Curtis premieres at 11:30 p.m. ET July 26 on Adult Swim. The episode will be available to watch on HBO Max the next day.