In ‘Mythic Quest’, a workplace comedy is shown through the lens of a video game company, which in the first season, brought the world its largest multiplayer game in history.
Created by Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz and Charlie Day, ‘Mythic Quest’ stars McElhenney as Ian Grimm, the creative director of MQ, Charlotte Nicado as the lead engineer and later the co-creative director, Poppy, and David Hornsby as David Brittlesbee, the executive producer of MQ—who in the first two seasons had a hard time speaking up. That all changes in Season 3.
“At the end of Season 2, Ian and Poppy boned my character—so I’m left at the end of season two to run the company by myself with Jo (Jessie Ennis) devoted at my side,” explains Hornsby when asked about what fans can expect for his character in Season 3 of Apple TV+’s hit series.
He continues: “So, in Season 3 we wanted to catch up and skip ahead and see how David was doing specifically without Ian and Poppy and with Jo, a devoted assistant now at his side—and he’s thriving. We thought it would be fun to start him out at the sort of zenith of his career and feel like he’s running a company on time and on budget, which is his dream. But, we then wanted to obviously take him from the heights and see if he was gonna fly or fall… And we have a lot of obstacles along the way.”
Aside from playing his character in front of the camera on the show, Hornsby also writes and produces with ‘Mythic Quest.’ He’s also worked with McElhenney in the same respect before with FX’s ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ (though in a character vastly different than Brittlesbee.) But with Season 3 of this new show, Hornsby does wear a new hat creatively in the form of directing.
“I did want to take on the challenge and see what it was like. And I specifically picked our Christmas episode because the plus side was it just felt like a special episode. Christmas episodes hopefully are going to be a bit more emotional, and that appealed to me,” Hornsby explains. “The downside was I’m in most scenes… So it presented a challenge in that way. But it was a lot of fun, and I want to do it more because I did find it very engaging, even the degree of difficulty made it more engaging for me. It was a lot of fun and just another way to be creative.”
Hornsby is used to working in a few different mediums when on his shows. Whether it’s Rickety Cricket in ‘Always Sunny’, or David Brittlesbee in the ‘Mythic Quest’ office, working simultaneously with friends and other creatives seems to benefit the multi-faceted performer.
“It’s more engaging for me to do that, to be challenged. It can sometimes be scary, especially if you’re stepping into a new situation—I mean that’s why I like to work with friends because it’s hard enough. I’m sure everyone knows in their work it’s hard enough to find those people you get along with or that you collaborate with well, and so it’s fun to then take those relationships, and try something new with ‘Mythic Quest’ for example,” Hornsby says.
He continues: “And then from there you’re hopefully working with people that raise your bar, and because of that, you end up challenging yourself more and more, and taking on more responsibility with your friends by your side working together. It makes you feel safe to fail and it brings out the best in you. That’s what is special about the show to me.”
And overall, what can fans expect from Season 3 of ‘Mythic Quest’ as a whole? According to Hornsby, there’s a lot more happening in the world of video games, and more specifically, with the people who are working on it. With some characters now taking on new roles or being in a new company altogether, there are a lot of fresh dynamics to explore.
“With Season 3, I think we just dig deeper into the characters specifically,” Hornsby finishes. “We have Ian and Poppy who have broken off and they’re doing their own company—so that’s a challenge. There’s literally a new office space so you’ll be seeing a completely new look in this season with new dynamics. Now you just have Ian and Poppy working alone without David, for example, being in the middle man to make sure they don’t kill each other.”
Hornsby also delves into some of the other characters, who now in ‘Mythic Quest’ Season 3, we will get to see a lot more of.
“We have Rachel (Ashly Burch) and Dana (Imani Hakim) really coming into their own career-wise and making new steps and we’ve added Carol (Naomi Ekperigin) into the mix more. Naomi is super funny and she’s also a writer on the show and is able to just write for herself in a really funny way and bring more of herself to the show. So you’ll see more of her, as well as Brad, who has returned to the office space after serving time in jail in a completely new position as a janitor.”
‘Mythic Quest‘ Season 3 will premiere on Apple TV+ Nov. 11.