Skip to main content

The Mythic Quest cast talks gaming and making a show about gaming

If Twitch and The Office had a baby, threw in some It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia veterans, and added the appeal of World of Warcraft, it would be Mythic Quest, the latest show to launch on Apple TV+.

We sat down with the team behind Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet to talk about the show, the characters, and what they find themselves playing.

Recommended Videos

Mythic Quest finds itself in a world new to television: A gaming studio. The workplace comedy genre is a familiar, if somewhat tired one, so it’s rare to bring something new to the class. That also lends itself to unique situations that scores of other shows have already tackled. That’s exactly what co-creators Rob McElhenney and Megan Ganz, who also served as executive producers for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, were going for.

“For comedy reasons, any place we can have really big egos and very high stakes is a great thing to go for,” Ganz says. “You have these people like Ian [McElhenney], who has created this massively successful video game, but if he walked down the street, nobody would know who he is. He’s not a Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, no matter how much he thinks he is.”

The show captures the quirky messiness of The Office and characters that don’t try to be likable, as fans of It’s Always Sunny in Philadephia will find familiar. What sets it apart is its ability to deliver stories in a world familiar to so many in 2020, but not yet seen on television. And it does so from a number of perspectives. It’s not just a show about the leaders behind a popular game. We also see the developers toiling away in a dimly lit space. Fans root for the testers as they stay up all night, finding a record number of bugs to be fixed by said developers. 

But it’s also easy to get emotionally invested, long before viewers reach the final ninth episode of the season. It’s hard to watch as one tester falls for another, but somehow easy to laugh when she’s called annoying to her face.

It’s why Mythic Quest provides a show that comedy fans and gamers can appreciate. It features over-the-top streamers, game testers endlessly looking for bugs, the lack of women in tech and gaming, and programmers waiting to see how fans will respond to updates.

And the Mythic Quest crew has some favorite games of their own.

Jessie Ennis, who plays the strong-willed assistant, and Charlotte Nicdao, who plays lead programmer Poppy, noted that the show is making them bigger gamers than they were before. The cast easily rattles off a list of their favorites spanning years and multiple console generations: Tekken, Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Stardew Valley, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, and The Last of Us. Some are bigger gamers than others, though.

“Pac-Man. What can I tell you, babe? Another century,” F. Murray Abraham, who plays the writer behind the titular game C.W. Longbottom, muses.

Lisa Marie Segarra
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Lisa Marie Segarra is the Gaming Section at Digital Trends. She's previously covered tech and gaming at Fortune Magazine and…
Presumed Innocent: Which one is better, the 1990 movie or the 2024 TV show?
Harrison Ford stares stoically while Jake Gyllenhaal sits at a desk.

Did Rusty Sabich kill Carolyn Polhemus? That is the question at the heart of Presumed Innocent, a legal thriller novel by author Scott Turow. Rusty, who works as a prosecutor, is charged with the murder of his colleague and mistress. The courtroom, which used to be Rusty's sanctuary, transforms into his battleground as he fights to prove his innocence.

The first major adaptation of Turow's novel debuted in 1990. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, Presumed Innocent is a film starring Harrison Ford as Rusty. Now, 34 years later, David E. Kelley has adapted Presumed Innocent into an Apple TV+ television series starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty. Both versions have their strengths and weaknesses. Which one is better? Let's examine the case and deliver the verdict.

Read more
Jackbox Naughty Pack is about to make its games a whole lot dirtier
A bunch of people sitting around a TV that says Jackbox Naughty Pack on it in what looks like a neon sign.

The Jackbox Naughty Pack | ESRB Trailer

Jackbox games can already be a bit naughty depending on your friend group, but if you ever wanted it to somehow be even more risqué, the previously announced Jackbox Naughty Pack now has a release window for September 2024.

Read more
Meta Quest 3’s newest game feels like a psychedelic Fruit Ninja
Key art for Thrasher.

While the high-level sales pitch for virtual reality often involves transporting players to another world, I've never found those to be the best VR games. In my experience, my favorite experiences are very esoteric, colorful, and weird. They're more like hallucinatory episodes rather than gateways to another world. That’s why Beat Saber still stands as one of the most popular VR games and why one of my favorite VR games is Rez Infinite.

Thrasher, the newest game from Thumper composer and artist Brian Gibson, is the latest VR game of that ilk. It’s also one of my favorite games I’ve played in VR to date thanks to its simple but mesmerizing gameplay. Thrasher is flying a bit under the radar ahead of release, but anyone with a Meta Quest headset should pick this game up now that it’s available.

Read more