The character of Phineas Welles, who the entire plot of The Outer Worlds revolves around, was apparently inspired by Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty. Although he spent much of the game locked away behind a glass wall and nearly impenetrable door, Phineas was the driving force which most of the story in The Outer Worlds revolved around. Whether or not the player decided to side with him, Phineas' mad scientist actions were the entire reason why player characters were alive in The Outer Worlds in the first place, and without him (and his occasionally crazy ideas) there would have been no game at all.
Similarly, Rick & Morty is a television show on Adult Swim which would not exist without the help of its own scientific madman, here in the form of Rick Sanchez. Rick is the smartest man in the entire universe, but he also has addiction and emotional problems which occasionally lead him and his grandson Morty into grave (and sometimes inescapable) danger. These two scientists have a lot in common, but as a recent documentary trailer has revealed, that's no coincidence.
In a short trailer for an upcoming Noclip documentary series on the making of The Outer Worlds, one of the developers at Obsidian accidentally calls Phineas Welles' character "Rick" before laughing and saying they came up with the idea of the character "very quickly, because we were watching Rick & Morty at the time." Indeed, there are a number of similarities between the two men: Both are scientists, both have spiky, ice blue hair, and both are dedicated to the idea of "sticking it to the man," sometimes at a huge personal or financial cost. Check out the trailer for the upcoming The Outer Worlds documentary series below:
It's worth noting that Phineas doesn't seem to have the same problems with alcohol and chemical dependencies that Rick Sanchez does, but he is at least as equally disliked by the local authorities, if not even more so. While Rick occasionally was called upon by even the President of the United States himself to help solve problems no one else could, Phineas Welles is unwelcome in society, with Wanted posters depicting his face plastered everywhere in The Outer Worlds' planet locations.
Rick & Morty is a show which contains thousands of references and inspirations, so it's cool to see it in turn inspiring something else. Viewers of the show likely know (or have picked up on the fact) that Rick & Morty was itself originally inspired by Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd's Marty McFly and Doc Brown characters from the Back to the Future series, and The Outer Worlds' Phineas Welles sure seems like someone Doc Brown would befriend. Viewers will have to wait for the full documentary series from Noclip (coming later this month) to find out more behind-the-scenes facts from the developers, but with a track record like Obsidian has for hiding tiny details, the information will surely be worth it.
Source: Noclip/YouTube