Summary

Collider’s Joe Schmidt speaks with Mythic Quest’s Rob McElhenney for Season 4.

In this interview, McElhenney discusses character growth in television, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and organic development for the story.

The creators of Mythic Quest managed to crack various genres and storytelling techniques by subverting expectations and making the story feel inevitable.

Not since Rocky Balboa has a man from Philadelphia taken the world by storm like Rob McElhenney. The man co-created one of the most iconic, absolutely wild sitcoms of all time with It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. He saved a genuine football team (read: soccer) with Deadpool, and turned it into a hit television series, Welcome to Wrexham. He’s also been under the radar at AppleTV+ acting and showrunning in Mythic Quest, one of the most original comedies available on streaming. Now in its fourth season, the comedy has a storied lore of its own, a fanbase growing exponentially, and yet another massive success for McElhenney.
Mythic Quest follows McElhenney’s Ian Grimm as he runs his video game studio producing the popular MMORPG Mythic Quest. Grimm finds himself at odds with his lead engineer, Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao), as well as the head of monetization (and janitor), Brad Bakshi, played by Danny Pudi. Known for its genre shifts and standalone episodes, Mythic Quest is also created by Megan Ganz and Charlie Day, alongside McElhenney and co-stars Ashly Burch and Jessie Ennis.
Collider’s own Joe Schmidt had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with McElhenney to talk about the new season of Mythic Quest. Together, they discuss secrets to engaging storytelling, how to gradually evolve characters through the life of a series, and which surprising video game adaptation McElhenney thinks would crossover best with Mythic Quest.
Rob McElhenney On Writing Character Growth In Television

“As long as it feels organic and authentic to who they are.”

COLLIDER: How’s it going, Rob?
ROB MCELHENNEY: There is probably not a bigger proponent of the stuff we do than Collider. I just want to say thank you for your entire organization because you guys have been awesome.
I really appreciate that. I only joined this site a couple months ago, but really I love it.
MCELHENNEY: Oh, well, then this is not for you. Tell your friends.
I will pass the credit on because this is stolen valor at this point.
Rob McElhenney On Writing Character Growth In Television

“As long as it feels organic and authentic to who they are.”

Image via Apple TV+

Ian Grimm is in a really funny place this season. How do you feel that Ian is grown from Season 1 to now? Because, for the naked eye, it feels like not that much, but there’s nuance to it. What would you say his growth is in Season 4?
MCELHENNEY: That’s always the trick in television. If a character completely changes and learns and/or grows, like they do at the end of a movie, there’s a reason why the movie ends—it’s because the story’s over. So with television, if you want people to keep coming back, you can have a character exhibit growth or learn something or change, but only to a point, because otherwise it ends the story.
With Ian and Poppy, which is the central story of the of the show, as long as it feels organic and authentic to who they are, we can have a little bit of growth, a little bit of change, and a little bit of change in their dynamic, but only insofar as it feels like we can still continue to create the conflict that is what people show up for. It’s always a slippery slope when you start changing a character like this because it completely subverts what you’re initially intending to do with the show. It’s been a lot of fun, but we’re always very careful to make sure it feels organic.
This Season 4 Reconciliation Is a “Fun and Complex” Standalone

Writer and director Megan Ganz “led the charge on that, and she was 100% right.”

Image via Apple TV+

It’s also interesting because this season allows Ian to grow in a different way. One of the cool things everyone loves about Mythic Quest is the standalone episodes. I’m not going to spoil it, but I’m just letting you know David [Hornsby] already spoiled it in a previous interview that I did. He already let it out there, so it’s going to go out. The character we revisit and how it kind of changes Ian’s journey, why was this important to you, and how did this one come about?
MCELHENNEY: This is actually something that Megan has been pushing for a couple of years. In fact, we almost did this in the previous year, and I’m glad we waited. We waited a year just to get another birthday. We can talk about it. I’d rather have people know what it’s about so that they can want to show up. As long as it doesn’t give away anything secret, which it doesn’t. Pootie Shoe’s a little bit older, and so the reconciliation, or attempted reconciliation, between father and son is a really interesting, fun, and complex area for a standalone episode. Megan would beat this drum pretty loudly. She really wanted to make sure that we were doing a service to that particular story and to that particular character. She led the charge on that, and she was 100% right, as per usual.
I’ve see her on the podcast. She’s pretty great. She’s mostly correct all the time.
MCELHENNEY: Almost always.
To an annoying degree, probably for you.
MCELHENNEY: No. No way. She’s the best.
‘Mythic Quest’ Cracks the Code to Good Storytelling

“To make it surprising and inevitable at the same time is the key to storytelling.”

Image via Apple TV+

I want to know when you guys realized you could crack basically any sort of genre or storytelling technique. I really feel like with the first spin-off episode, and then Side Quest coming out, the pandemic episode, you guys are able to do so many creative things. When did you guys realize in producing the show that you could basically do whatever you wanted?
MCELHENNEY: Look, if you surround yourself with the right people and really creative minds and recognize that there are no rules to what we’re making here—outside of the rules of good taste and legality—it’s just storytelling. There are all sorts of different tools that you can use at your disposal to play with the storytelling. Not just technical tools but looking at stories through different prisms and different perspectives, and really going hard for comedy in areas where you wouldn’t expect it, and then going hard for drama in ways that you wouldn’t expect it.
That’s what we’re always trying to do, which is to subvert people’s expectations and yet make it all feel like it was inevitable. That’s the thing we always talk about. Surprising but inevitable. It’s easy to surprise people, but it doesn’t feel linked into a story in an organic way. It’s easy to make something inevitable. You just do the same story over and over again. But to make it surprising and inevitable at the same time is the key to storytelling. That’s what creates goosebumps, and that’s what we’re always going for.
Awesome.
Rob McElhenney Would Crossover ‘Mythic Quest’ With This Zombie Drama

Hey, Rob, we need this crossover stat.

Image via HBO

There’s this little-known crossover between Abbot Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia—I guess it was a big deal. But I gotta ask you, if Mythic Quest could crossover with another show, what would you choose?
MCELHENNEY: Oh, wow. That is a great question. I think we would go with The Last of Us. [Laughs]
Damn. That’s pretty dark, but yeah, I could see Ian thriving.
MCELHENNEY: I know! But can you imagine that contagion taking over the office, but a couple of us survive? I don’t know. I think that’d be pretty rad.
New episodes of Mythic Quest premiere on Wednesdays only on AppleTV+.

Mythic Quest

Release Date

February 7, 2020

Network

Apple TV+

Directors

Todd Biermann, Pete Chatmon, Megan Ganz, Angela Barnes, Steve Welch, Catriona McKenzie, LP, Danny Pudi, Heath Cullens

Writers

Katie McElhenney, Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris, Aparna Nancherla, Naomi Ekperigin, Kyle Mack, Keyonna Taylor, Randall Valdez-Castillo, Emma dePaulo Reid