A new season with new quests for our characters at everyone’s favourite game studio, Mythic Quest! We left season two with everyone forging a new path ahead for themselves.
“Dynamic” and “emotional” are the two words executive producer and writer David Hornsby uses to describe the show’s third season, which premiered on Apple TV+ last week.
“Yeah, we’re really taking some new directions with some characters and stories,” he explains to Supanova, without revealing too much.
Hornsby’s character in the show, David Brittlesbee, is now taking complete control of his role as the boss at Mythic Quest.
Jessie Ennis and David Hornsby
“He’s in his stride when we meet again and catch up to him in season three. Running the company on time and on budget. And he does get a little big for his britches and is happy to rub all his success in Ian’s (Rob McElhenney) face, which certainly backfires on him. But isn’t that the fun of it?”
Jessie Ennis returns as Jo, who has become David’s assistant again after her actions led to Brad (Danny Pudi) taking the fall and getting arrested in the season two finale. Jo is completely loyal to David, ensuring he remains a feared boss. And that requires a lot of work.
“To get into character, I drink a lot of Red Bull, and then I listen to music really loudly. And then I watch clips of Meghan McCain hosting The View,” quips Ennis.
Despite playing a militant character, she says that she and the other cast members do break frequently when filming.
“When David’s funny, and specifically when we were shooting [episode] Please Sign Here in season two, we were breaking all day long during his wolf shtick. It was tough,” she recounts.
Ashly Burch and Imani Hakim
Ashly Burch returns as Rachel, a game tester at Mythic Quest, only to discover she loves stories and how they are created, leading her to apply for a writing program at Berkeley. Rachel is going after something she wants this season. But sometimes what we want fits differently from the idea created in one’s mind, and that’s what Burch had fun exploring this season.
“I think she realises what she’s not good at and what she is good at. I don’t think she’s that happy about what she is good at,” Burch explains to Supanova.
“I think we established some stuff with Rachel that is going to be fun to explore in season four, and how she copes with it because Rachel had this idea that she was a very good, upstanding person. And she’s realising that maybe that’s not the case. So there’s a bit of a moral conundrum that she’s dealing with this season.”
Aussie actor Charlotte Nicdao (Poppy) and Imani Hakim (Dana) also return, expressing excitement about their stories this season.
“I knew coming into this season that there was no way that this was going to pan out for Poppy the way that she wanted it to, which, of course, is always the most delicious thing to get to play with as an actor,” Nicdao tells. “What havoc is going to unfold, and how messy is Poppy going to get this season?”
Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao
Hakim adds that she was glad to finally step out of the game-testing cube to dive further into Dana’s character and is excited “seeing all these layers of her personality and her drive and ambition and how she sets her own boundaries for herself within her career”.
This season, Dana is taken under the wings of Poppy and Ian.
“[Dana’s] led with this niceness and sweetness in the previous seasons,” Hakim says, “but she’s discovering she’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to be so nice because nice is not going to get me anywhere.’ And so, she’s going to spread her wings and step into the boss she’s meant to be by learning from the best.”
What was unique about this season for Nicdao and Hakim were the scenes they had together.
“Poppy and Dana learn a lot from each other, and they’re teaching each other a bunch without even knowing that contributes to their growth,” Hakim says.
Nicdao adds: “It’s a toxic mentorship that sometimes accidentally works.”
Danny Pudi and Naomi Ekperigin
Naomi Ekperigin returns as a series regular this season as Carol, who is also spreading their wings in her new promotion within the company.
“You know, they say with great power comes great responsibility. But I think it’s really just come great pains in the butt,” Ekperigin says humorously about the development of her character this season.
“It’s a lot harder for her to do what she needs to do now, even though she’s supposed to be higher up the corporate ladder.”
On the other side, Pudi’s character, Brad, returns to Mythic Quest at the bottom after his release from jail.
“Brad has served some time in prison. He’s reflected. He’s had a lot of time to think. He’s possibly had a couple of prison tattoos,” Pudi jokes.
“I do feel like he’s coming out fresh and ready for a new challenge. He has an opportunity, and he’s starting from the bottom as a janitor. With Brad, there’s always a game afoot. I don’t know what the game is going to be entirely, but there’s always a game afoot. And I think that’s the fun of playing Brad. You don’t know what he’s up to, but he’s up to something.”
Is there an end game to how the cast pictures their characters in Mythic Quest?
“Sometimes, you generally know your destination,” Hornsby explains, “but we look at it season by season in a certain way because you don’t know if you’re going to have four seasons [like we have] or six seasons or, who knows, 15. I don’t know.”
“It’s always unexpected,” Ennis reminds Supanova.
Burch, who is also on the writing team for the series, likes the unexpected: “That’s the nice thing about this show is that we really do evolve the characters. We change things up; we take big swings. At the end of season two, I don’t think any of us knew that’s where it was headed.”
Ekperigin and Pudi, on the other hand, have a dream of where they see Carol and Brad.
“My end game for Carol is sitting on the beach with a colourful drink,” Ekperigin states as Pudi adds to this scenario: “So if you’re on the beach with a colourful drink… Brad is in a little inflatable pool swimming in money, also holding a couple of drinks. Maybe a couple of nice cold beers in his hand and maybe Snoop’s over there. Bring him back. Things are good.”
Mythic Quest season three is now streaming on Apple TV+ and you can watch an exclusive behind-the-scenes skit below!
