Rick and Morty season 3 gets release date and trailer featuring Mad Max and Game of Thrones parodies

'I turned myself into a pickle, Morty! I'm Pickle Riiiiiiiiiiiick!'

Adult Swim has finally confirmed a release date for Rick and Morty season 3, with all-new episodes beginning on 30 July at 11.30pm ET.

The release date accompanied the first trailer for the season - a montage of more surreal adventures for Rick Sanchez and his grandson Morty Smith, set to Dizzee Rascal's 'Bonkers'.

It follows a fake-out of a trailer Adult Swim previously released that consisted of season 2 footage mashed up to sound out Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up'.

The 30 July release date makes good on the promise to have the season out over the summer, after the first episode, 'The Rickshank Rickdemption', was dropped as a surprise on April Fool's Day.

A hell of a lot is packed into the breakneck trailer, including Pickle Rick fighting giant rats, Morty in a Game of Thrones-esque bathroom environment with a giant arm, two Summers, Rick throwing himself through a window and what looks to be a Mad Max parody episode.

"Welcome to the darkest year of our adventures," Rick says, with the trailer concluding in voiceover: "Only a show this smart could be this stupid."

Season 3 is expected to consist of 14 episodes. Co-creator Dan Harmon previously explained of the delay on it:

"I understand and we are flattered that in an information vacuum, with the show so late, any morsel of info is going to have huge weight. But the truth is not dramatic. It’s quite boring. We love our show. It’s a weird show that we struggle to not overthink OR underthink. As for now, they’re drawing it.

"We don’t update on exactly where every episode is in pipeline for two reasons (uh oh sub enumeration): One is that we want you harassing the bosses as opposed to hard-at-work artists and editors, or writers that finished months ago. The other is that it is out of our jurisdiction to discuss schedule. That’s Adult Swim’s biz. Totally unrelated. Hence the info shortage.

"So, I’m sorry I can’t say “we fractured a creative valve in sector three" or “it’s Paul’s fault. GET HIM!” No hidden truth. We slow. Sorry. Part of what I was trying to express is that WE would sit and ponder, what’s the problem here, how can we write faster, why we so slow? And then we’d go “what made us faster in season one" and then we’d go “we didn’t sit here talking about this, let’s just do this,” etc."