Mythic Quest Spin-Off Mere Mortals Will Have 'A Lot Of Interplay' With The Original Show [Exclusive]
The world of "Mythic Quest" is expanding. This week, Apple TV+ shared the news that the wild gaming industry comedy about a video game company led by dysfunctional genius duo Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) and Ian (Rob McElhenney) has garnered a spin-off, "Mere Mortals." The new eight-episode series will also be set within the world of "Mythic Quest," and will apparently take inspiration from the show's critically acclaimed one-off episodes, telling specific stories about MQ fans, players, and even employees at the company.
This week, I spoke with series co-creator Megan Ganz about the new show, which will be headed up by "Mythic Quest" writers John Howell Harris, Katie McElhenney, and Ashly Burch (who also plays Rachel in the flagship series). "It's really early stages," Ganz said. "All I can say is that it's going to be run by three of our best writers from the 'Mythic Quest' room. And they are so instrumental to what has made 'Mythic Quest' good up until now." The trio behind the new series has been responsible for some of the show's best episodes to date, from season 1's cautionary tale "A Dark Quiet Death," to the special Covid-set episode "Everlight," to this season's "The Two Joes."
Ganz is also on board with the new show as an executive producer, alongside Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and David Hornsby. But it sounds like it'll be primarily in Burch, Harris, and Katie McElhenney's hands, as Ganz says she's "really excited to see where they take this show." While the initial announcement for "Mere Mortals" doesn't classify it as an anthology, that's essentially what the "Mythic Quest" one-off episodes are: powerful (and funny!) half-hours of television that tell earnest, standalone stories about different characters' relationships with storytelling and creativity.
'One affects the other'
It sounds like "Mere Mortals" could pretty much go anywhere with this format, giving us backstories for more fan-favorite characters, or coming up with totally new plot points that are only tangentially related to the main story (as with "A Dark Quiet Death," which was thematically integral but featured characters we never saw again). It may be too soon to tell what's in store, but Megan Ganz says the show will definitely have some connections to the series that inspired it:
"Doing a spin-off, we want it to have a lot of interplay with 'Mythic Quest' so that it's like if you watch both shows, you have a deeper understanding of both because you're seeing the ways that one affects the other."
Though it currently just has the single-season order, Ganz also says she hopes "Mere Mortals" will be "a cool little puzzle" that the team will ideally get to piece together for a few seasons. "Mythic Quest" has proven that, for all the silliness and chaos that it cultivates in the day-to-day world of MQ and GrimPop, it's also capable of balancing emotionally rewarding, sincere stories. With episodes like "Quarantine," "A Dark Quiet Death," and this week's "Sarian," it has mastered the self-contained episode format at a level that very few currently airing shows have. So whatever "Mere Mortals" brings, we'll be ready to tune in.
"Mythic Quest" is available on Apple TV+, with new episodes streaming each Friday.