Rick & Morty: How Old Are Morty & Summer (& Do They Age)

Morty and Summer on the animated series Rick and Morty have been through a lot – especially Morty – and yet thus far they seem to be the same age as when the show started (in late 2013). All of the main characters in Rick and Morty have developed as the seasons have gone by: Morty’s older sister Summer and even Morty’s parents have become increasingly involved, and other plotlines (such as the breakup of the Smiths’ marriage) have moved forward. Morty first mentions that he is 14 in the episode “Anatomy Park,” and Summer says she is 17 in the episode “Rixty Minutes,” both in the first season (2013-2014). But in the fourth season (2019-2020), everyone is still the same age. The fifth season is expected to arrive later this year – raising the question of whether Morty and Summer, at long last, will finally get birthdays.

Despite the notion that all of the past episodes have taken place across only a single year in the lives of the characters, viewers have seen more than one occasion where the regulars have all spent months in different timelines and realities. An obvious example of this is the opener to season 2, “A Rickle in Time,” where Rick has “frozen time” for everyone but him and the kids for six months. Rick, Morty, and Summer also lived for some time in the wasteland of “Rickmancing the Stone.”

In the Season 4 story “Never Ricking Morty,” fans finally get a glimpse of possible futures for the young heroes, and one of them includes Summer leaving for college – prompting Morty to mention that it “really felt like you were going to be 17 forever,” to which Summer replies “for 16 years, at least.” While only a possible future, it does seem to establish that the characters can age, and hints that the creators of Rick and Morty have been thinking about what that would involve for the show going forward.

Adding to the confusion, in the episode “Close Rick-counters of the Rick Kind” Beth mentions that it has been a year since Rick moved in with them – yet Morty and Summer are still the same age. This is an example of “time dilation,” and gives the show freedom to have the characters spend lots of time together without changing them too much. An example of this occurs in “The Ricks Must Be Crazy,” where Morty and Rick spent many months in the Teenyverse, while Summer – still in the “real” universe – experienced it as no more than a few hours. In “Rick Potion No. 9,” the original Summer, Beth, and Jerry (in the now-Cronenberged C-137 reality) wonder what happened to Rick and Morty, suggesting they’ve been gone for a long time.

The co-creator of the show, Dan Harmon, has revealed in convention panels and interviews that Morty will have a relationship with a woman other than Jessica in the upcoming season. This opens the door to the idea that Morty is growing in complexity as a character and entering adulthood. Sharp-eyed fans have also noted that Morty is somewhat taller than he was in the first season, implying that he may finally be 15 years old.

The fan wiki for the show (cleverly called a “Rickipedia”) echoes Harmon, stating that in season 5 Morty will finally be 15, while Summer will be 18. If correct, this could mean big changes for the show, such as Summer graduating high school, and possibly the end of Morty’s obsession with Jessica, alongside other ongoing Rick and Morty plotlines. Morty and Summer have had a number of relationships, killed many beings, and been witness to worlds and atrocities far beyond their physical age. This said, fans of Rick and Morty will have to wait until the new season starts to see if there is finally definitive proof that Morty and Summer are older.