Apple TV Plus renews Mythic Quest for a third and fourth season
The streamer made the announcement with a video featuring Rob McElhenney, Anthony Hopkins, and Jason Sudeikis
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Mythic Quest ended its second season with a major cliffhanger, but thankfully, fans will get to see what happens next in Apple TV+’s excellent series. Apple TV announced that the show’s been renewed for a third and fourth season, with the help of some notable stars.
In a jokey video, Rob McElhenney FaceTimes Anthony Hopkins (whom he refers to as “Tony”), telling him the show got picked up for two more seasons. “Wow, that’s wonderful, congratulations. Yeah, bright…what is that, exactly?”
“You were in an episode in season two, in fact, you got nominated for an Emmy!” McElhenney, the showrunner and star, reminds his good friend Tony, as they go into an awkward back and forth. Hopkins pretends that he has no idea what Mythic Quest is or what Rob’s name is. (Hopkins served as narrator on the episode “Everlight.”)
Hopkins hangs up after getting a call from Apple TV+’s golden boy: “Suds.” Jason Sudeikis appears donning a hoodie and the flat cap he often wears, and refers to Hopkins as “T-Hops.”
Hopkins asks when Sudeikis—Ted Lasso star and co-creator—will let him go on that show, saying he could be Keely’s new boyfriend. The Oscar winner is told he has to audition.
While Ted Lasso continues to be Apple TV+’s biggest TV show despite many fans voicing how much they preferred the first season over the second one, Mythic Quest is the streamer’s hidden gem. It doesn’t tug heartstrings as much as Ted Lasso, but this workplace comedy is just as hilarious and heartfelt, while still featuring McElhenney’s signature dark, comedic touch which is seen in his other hit series, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.
As The A.V. Club writer William Hughes wrote in his review of season two, “Mythic Quest reminds us of how wonderful it can be to dip back into a comedy series that has so much to say about, and so much passion for, its actual subject matter. It might take some knowing pokes at the ‘workplace as family’ themes that have been infiltrating TV comedy for decades, but Mythic Quest never loses sight of the fact that it’s a show about people whose lives, for good or ill, revolve around making a thing.”
28 Comments
Despite being an Always Sunny fan, I didn’t really expect to like Mythic Quest that much, but it really is great. Given how Season 2 ended, I’ll be interested to see what Rob and company think up for S3 and beyond.
Got caught up on this recently, great show. I hope Charlotte Nicdao does some more non-MQ stuff too though, she’s fantastic.
Even when she’s being mean and vindictive, she’s absolutely adorable.
Yay! I just finished season 2 after watching it on the advice of another AV Club commenter (thanks, random internet person!). It’s surprisingly great. I’m not a watcher of Always Sunny, so I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. I literally googled MQ yesterday to see if it has been renewed for another season. PS: Any chance of getting permanently ungreyed, Tatiana/the powers that be at AV Club? I’m longtime commenter Thundercatsarego, but unfortunately I lost my password for that account in a computer crash.
I got you.
THANK YOU! You have the eternal gratitude of an anonymous internet person.
This is great news! Wife and I binged both seasons back to back after finally ponying up for Apple TV. The standalone eps each season (set in the past) were honestly SUPER well done, and I hope they continue peppering those in going forward.
The “main” eps are also great, though, don’t get me wrong. But I think those standalone eps make a case for an anthology series showing fictionalized but pivotal moments in geekery – I’d watch the hell out of it.
I love Mythic Quest, despite having literally no interest or experience with those kind of video games (or whatever that is they make in the show). It’s hilarious with some heartbreaking dramatic bits, and some real surprises. I know Apple TV+ doesn’t have much “content” but between MQ and Ted Lasso and [other stuff I haven’t seen yet but am assured is good] it was definitely worth my sliding over from free trial to paying not very much every month.
Good news: MythicQuest only bears the most passing resemblance to actual videogame design. It’s “just” a very good office comedy with a videogame gloss.
Eh, you can clearly tell the people behind the show do know video game design. They might have opted to take liberty with a lot of creative choices, but even the things that they took liberty with seem to have done with knowledge of the actual thing in mind. TL;DR They did their research.
Oh, there’s definitely one or more people involved who know a lot about this stuff. The Mythic Quest team is comically small, though, and the idea that there are two testers on a couch who are responsible for catching most of the bugs are … well, that actually explains a lot about many MMO launches, to be honest. (But it’s still not accurate.)
But it’s easy to see why they made these changes. No one wants to see dozens of programmers, hundreds of QA folks, large community teams, masses of game masters, etc. So instead of having a ton of extras standing around in sets that will be used once a season and just concentrating on a few people one each of those teams (so that viewers don’t keep going “now who the fuck is this new person?”), the show just handwaves everyone else away.
They do a lot better with Mythic Quest’s server farm, although they ignore the need for colocation, especially with a globally popular MMO. (They do acknowledge there are team members in other time zones, though, which is nice.)
I dunno, I felt the episode about the nazis really nailed some important aspects of online gaming.
Sad but true. And their solution actually matches what real online gaming companies have done at times!
Add me to that list of people assuring you the rest of the content is good: For All Mankind, Morning Show, Servant, See, they’re all at the very least above average compared to the kind of original shows you’d see on Netflix.
This show was a hit in our house. In particular, the backstory episodes in season 2 were an unexpected movie we didn’t expect to get, and were delightful.I honestly don’t even want to say too much about them, as I’d hope other people will be curious enough to discover them on their own.
The back story episodes were shockingly good and the first time I realized how much ambition was behind the show.
Fwiw I’ve actually met Anthony Hopkins, and he definitely prefers to be be called Tony. It was actually the first thing he said to me, “call me Tony.”
Unexpected, but excellent, news!
Omg Rob in that photo looks like former WCW Wrestler Buff Bagwell so much! Ha!
McElhenney lost too much weight. He doesn’t look like Haley Joel Osment anymore.
Saying as I have fallen in love with Charlotte Nicdao, this is excellent news!
I’m just here to tell folks like me who may have skipped this show initially because of how dumb the trailer made it look: give it a shot, it’s worth watching. It doesn’t really succeed as a parody of the video game industry, but it’s a surprisingly good relationship sitcom with a bunch of interesting and fun characters. I kind of think of it as diet Ted Lasso. It’s not quite in the same league, but hits a lot of similar notes.
Fantastic news. I heard there will even be a joke in the 4th season.
Hell’s yeah.
oh, excellent news. the last episode in itself was fantastic, but the amount of dangling threads it left was killing me (Brad’s brother, what the hell CW was gonna do, how long before Poppy and Ian’s new venture just collapses in on itself and they start arguing again…). can’t wait for more of this show
HELL YEAAAAlso, that bit is hilarious.
Wow, really didn’t think they were gonna get a third season after how season 2 ended. Glad to be wrong! Thanks AppleTV, you just earned another few months of my paid subscription.
This is great news! The show functions perfectly well as a workplace comedy but isn’t to occasionally take risks and stretch it wings into something more.