The Vindicators is an American animated superhero comedy spin-off of the Rick and Morty franchise, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, whose primary eponymous team consists of Vance Maximus, Supernova, Alan Rails, Crocubot, Million Ants, and Noob Noob, and were created by Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe for the 2017 third season of Rick and Morty, premiering in "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender". Following the publication of a comic book sequel and prequel by Oni Press in 2018, the characters were revived after five years with Vindicators 2: Last Stand Between Earth and Doom, a ten-episode miniseries released to the Adult Swim YouTube channel in 2022 as the second television series in the franchise, with Carbiener serving as showrunner, and expressing interest in further seasons of the series being produced.
The series centers on the misadventures of the Vindicators, a team of galaxy-faring superheroes who protect planets from threats across the universe, with the characters traveling to other planets and dimensions via spaceships while slowly becoming disillusioned with the universe and their place in it, in a dark satire of the superhero genre. The Vindicators series has received critical praise.
Background
Creation
In 1996, Matt Selman wrote a The Vindicators television pilot script for Comedy Central, revolving around "a team of super heroes with real-life problems". In 1998, the network agreed to produce a pilot from Selman's script, which on completion, was immediately shelved from release due to poor quality, never to be aired.
On the beginning of development of a third season of the adult animated science-fiction sitcom Rick and Morty in November 2015, Selman's The Vindicators was re-pitched as a spec script from Sarah Carbiener and Erica Rosbe, inspired by the superhero genre and Saw franchise. Carbiener stated that she managed to learn many things from her experience as a member of the writing team on the episode, stating that a story that for other shows would have been an entire episode, for Rick and Morty would only be its first few minutes, and as such, the team had to write a large amount of story in a very short time. The first Vindicators episode, "Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender", premiered on August 13, 2017, as the fourth episode of the season.