A new Rick and Morty spinoff premieres right after the season 9 finale

The season 9 finale of Rick and Morty airs on Adult Swim on July 26, and fans will want to stick around after to watch the first episode of the spinoff President Curtis. The release date was announced at a panel at Annecy Festival where showrunners Dan Harmon and James Siciliano explained their inspiration and teased some of the challenges that Curtis will face.

Siciliano said the idea for a spinoff started with the season 5 Rick and Morty episode "Rick & Morty's Thanksploitation Spectacular," where Rick turns himself into a turkey to try to get a pardon from President Andre Curtis (Keith David). He winds up going toe to toe with Curtis, who reveals that the U.S. government has plenty of wild secrets.

"In the writers' room we said [Curtis] should be your fantasy president," Harmon said. "He's an 8th grade boy who wants to be Batman. He's Bruce Wayne but a little dumber."

Harmon described the show as The X-Files meets Community as Curtis and his team have to run the government while dealing with all sorts of sci-fi and fantasy threats. One episode will reveal a secret prison for aliens, vampires, and other paranormal threats the U.S. maintains in the Bermuda Triangle while another will reveal that a powerful witch is bound at Camp David and presidents have to perform rituals there to keep her captive.

"Rick's kind of like a god, so sometimes finding stakes for Rick is pretty challenging because he can solve anything," Siciliano said. "It's still sci-fi, weird, and action, but we're able to do more terrestrial things."