On the exciting news that Mythic Quest will expand with a eight-episode extension series, Mere Mortals, Nerds and beyond has gotten the chance to speak with Megan Ganz, co-creator and executive producer of Mythic Quest.
Mythic Quest, which is currently beginning its third season,follows a group of video game developers that build worlds, make legendary heroes, but most difficult battles have not happened in the office. Ganz is also planning to executive produce Mere Mortals, which explores the lives of employees, players and fans who are impacting the game by taking a page from the typical set of Dark Quiet Death to its characters.
In addition to working on movies like Community and Modern Family, Ganz currently plays the role of the writer and executive producer on The Always Sunny podcast in Philadelphia.
Note: This interview has been edited to clarify.
More and more: First and foremost, I wanted to go on a trip to the hospital with the acustoles. I was very excited when I heard it, since I love the shows side episodes. I wanted to ask you to talk about them before this news came out. I know that you may be unable to really say so much yet, but can you say anything about Mere Mortals or how it began?
Megan Ganz: What it happened was Apple said to us, Wed like if you had any ideas for an alternative spin-off. And we thought that, Wow, that’s really great. They listened very enthusiastically to this show. We knew they liked it when they picked us up for two seasons after season 2, but it was just another vote of confidence. Just like, hey, we have more of this show.
If you weren’t able to watch the movie, we know one of the most popular parts of the show is its own episode. And as long as you know, we have talked much about the writer’s room how we don’t have the space and time to talk about the people who play Mythic Quest which is so interesting to the story. This has never made it into the show. But we are having a great discussion about how our characters are so similar to Greek gods, where they are the ones that make it seem to love the world, as they remain constant fierce rivals. The people on Earth often feel the results of the warring and ultimately, the players of the game end up fighting because of disagreements and arguments we have over top. We always talked about maybe doing something where we delve into mythic Quest.
Wed thought about a story of a weird, white noise, for example, in the game whose sound is very loud, and a father, who has a baby who doesn’t cry, realizes that this sound is the only thing that makes the child stop crying. He always works the game to prevent this bug. He will fix it. And how the thing that is for us, Great, we’ve got rid of that bug! can ruin anybody else’s day. We were talking about things like this, and going, There is a world there that we have nothing to do. The concept behind Mere Mortals Was it real? Why don’t we talk about that?
I think that it’ll be interesting to play between Mere Mortals and What was now called Mythic Quest Prime, and it’s how these two things relate, how the things that our characters do affect the players of the game and what it is like. We are extremely excited and in addition to some of our most successful and talented writers, John Howell Harris and Ashly Burch, who plays Rachel, and Katie McElhenney. I’ve kind of taken up the show and they just put together a fantastic pitch. And yeah, Apple was the best-godge. We were really excited. I think they’ll start writing pretty soon.
Nerds andamp; Beyond: I’m struggling. Now, rereading Mythic Quests: How did you describe a set of important themes that dominated season 3?
Ganz: Episode 3 arcwise is the moment in which Poppy has been completely convinced all his problems in life are because of her boss and he is not her partner. And if she wasn’t working on her game, she would’ve had no of the things she did to tackling. She realized that that was not the case in Season 3. They come into Mythic Quest once they get right now and they are equals and they’re working on his game so as to play it, so that’s her problem, I don’t know how to do this. This isn’t good for that part of this world. In general, the show says that its okay, that Poppy doesn’t have to be good at both parts of it.
I think sometimes we fall in a girl boss trap – having a small amount of women doing whatever they do. You’re too afraid to make them angry about something or to be unlikable in some way. And I think what really great about Poppy is the shouting, look, she’s the most talented programmer of all kind of, maybe her generation. She’s a bad boss. She has bad hygiene, doesn’t want people to go to a place with big ideas. And you know what? That’s okay, because she has a partner that can do it for her. The problem with Ian is that he’s not good at what he does. And if they were both good at what the other person did, they wouldn’t need each other. This is truly a love letter for partnerships.
Poppy is trying to get to a point where she may let go of that need to do what Ian does and stop judging herself against his abilities. Instead, she gets some confidence in her own actions. I think that they’ll get more effective partners going forward. Season 3 is about these two realizing like, If we don’t feel like our bad, but maybe they get married and we are both taking care of it. That entire show, particularly Charlotte, has said this in an interview, and I think it’s totally a creative love story. And not romantic love stories between the two of them. Also there is a desire to tell them or either Poppy or Ian will be together to make one another’s best friends, or one’s a friend or a friend.
The audience is hoping to figure out how they can make things together. But that starts with both of them realizing that its okay to need someone else in their lives. That’s too much of what was delving into this year. The whole episode of the episode has been delving into why maybe both of them have a trauma around committing to a big part of their lives with another person and maybe hinting at why they’re afraid of that intimacy. That is what everybody gets away from it.
Nerds & Beyond: The show is all about gaming, mostly male. The show is carried out by strong female characters all with their own distinct stories. Because this is a comedy makes it even bigger. So what is this all mean to you as a creator?
All right: It’s everything. There was no version of the show we had ever seen that didn’t look like it had very strong female presence on screen. Just want it to be true, right? And were talking about the video game industry, whom males dominate. That’s going to get better. Because all players are men, I think it’s a myth, but that they’re still doing their best to bring more women into it. We wanted to make sure we were true to that.
We have recreated characters like Poppy, which we treat as an exception to the rule. Young women should not attain the level that they have at all. So if you treat him to that, we acknowledge she’s a matter of a kind in the studio. Then all the other characters, if you notice that in the first season they’re testers, women who have low marks on their totem pole. They are Jo, who is the assistant, and Carol, who works in HR. We tried to make women characters, but still have to be authentic to the world. Then our position was that were going to watch these women come into their own business. Our drive to see them chase their own dreams was able to grow and begin to realize they’ve got a space in this industry too.
Frankly, we just have fantastic performers who allowed us to make such strong characters. I think all of that begins with Charlotte. She’s phenomenal. She’s one of those incredibly rare actresses who can be incredibly goofy and stupid and then in the next scene cry and feel for her so strongly. Sometimes I think this is a muppet. He’s like that, but he’s still real and authentic. Even in the first season, we realized that the audience was experiencing the show by Poppy. She’s a lot the centre of the show, and all of the arcs are based on her relationship with Ian. He’s a sort of immovable figure. Were showing him a little arc in the moment, in the struggles he is having. Just like you, if you like it, you need to be watching Poppys. You know, I am a woman, so I like to write for the ladies, and we have a couple of funny things that really take time. I loved this year, we got to bring Carol up in the mix, because she was always one of my favorite characters, and I like to be more involved this year. This was great for you.
The niger & Beyond, and therefore, asked one of the other cast members this question, and I wanted to ask you, because you can differ from the viewpoint of others behind the scenes. Which character would you take from the show out to lunch?
Ganz: Oh, that’s a great question. I could take Dana to me because Dana, and really exploring it this season, she has the same internal confidence that Ian has, and she’s kind of an individual who doesn’t think she’s the poorest bitch in the room. And I’ve never felt like this. So we wrote this great line this year where Dana and Poppy are preparing for their pitch. Danas tried to teach Poppy how to possess more confidence. Dana says that Playpen is our game. Think it’s your game? Are you mad? And she says her, Oh, yes. Poppy says that I had worked on the Mythic Quest for seven years, and never thought it was my game. And Denmark like, Why not?
I have always seen myself a little a little in Poppy. Look at that moment shit you, Oh, but? Sorry, why didn’t I ever think this is my game? And, like me, I can learn a lot from you. So I will take Dana, because I think maybe she could teach me how to tap into that inner confidence that she looks to have. She’s a wolf. Whatever test she says that she’s a otter, what else? No, she’s a wolf, both through and through. She was right.
Nose. No. A – We’ll be with you in Season 3: Is there a chance that you’ll step back into the symphony again?
Oh, I don’t think. I like the show. This year, I was not going to, but because we gave a chance to some of our other writers and actors to help with directing, which was fantastic. He wrote one, Ashly [Burch], and David [Hornsby] and all of those beautiful episodes. I was like, you know what? That was great. And last year, I was required to make some [Att. Sunny in Philadelphia]. But then, for Sarian, our director got COVID, and then they were like, Youre up! I finally drew an entire piece of that one.
I love it. I know the word “mythic” the writer has all the details and it seems like a natural step in my life because I know what the aim of the article is. But I really love it. I mean, I don’t know how to beat her, please Sign here. That was so fun. It was my first episode, and I could’ve peaked with this. Because I had to be part of one of those moments I never dreamed about like when David dropped from the window and rolled across the table and all that ridiculousness. Everyone was able to keep this together because he was so busy with that. It was hysteria on a set.
As the director, Guys, I’m like to start. Your characters are not finding this amusing. But they really can’t stop laughing until a moment when every take, I had to start by going, Okay. Alright, everybody set, and Davids not funny and action. Like, try to buy them in the space. But no, I really love this. It’s a huge hit. It’s so much fun.
Catch New Episodes ofMythic Questexclusively onApple TV+on Fridays.
If you don’t expect to be doing that, check out our season 3 interviews with Charles Nicdao & Imani HakimandAshly Burch & Jessie Ennis as well.