Rob McElhenney Promises More of the ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Gang in ‘Mythic Quest’ Season 2
From the looks of Mythic Quest, people may think it is Rob McElhenney’s solo project. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fans will recognize David Hornsby, Sunny’s Cricket and executive producer, as a creator and Mythic Quest whipping boy David, and the name Megan Ganz as another creator.
McElhenney spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet after Mythic Quest’s Television Critics Association panel on Jan. 19. He promised more familiar faces from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia would be involved with Season 2. Mythic Quest Season 1 is now available on Apple TV+.
Rob McElhenney created a different workplace than ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet is what they call in television a “workplace comedy.” Technically, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is too. The gang runs Paddy’s Pub, but the bar doesn’t define most of their episodes.
“Mostly I think the difference is not the workplace itself but the abilities and acumen of the people working there,” McElhenney said. “The employees of Paddy’s Pub are morons. Whereas the employees of Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet are incredibly adept and intelligent and skilled.”
‘Mythic Quest’ is a different kind of comedy than ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’
Not that Mythic Quest is necessarily highbrow, but the people making the jokes are of a different breed than the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia gang. That includes Ian Grimm, the character McElhenney himself plays.
“The personalities are very different,” McElhenney said. “The egos remain exceptionally large. The show is different insofar as Sunny is ostensibly a live-action cartoon at this point, and that’s something that we’ve leaned into a very long time ago. Whereas this show, we wanted to make sure that people felt like real human beings.”
Rob McElhenney doesn’t imrpov as much on ‘Mythic Quest’
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia features a lot of improv riffs when the gang gets going. Mythic Quest has plenty of comic actors capable of improv, but the nature of the show makes it different.
“Sunny has a very specific look and aesthetic to it. That’s a function of the way we like to shoot which is just rolling three cameras in every direction. And it’s not lit well and it’s not shot on great cameras and that’s because we don’t want it to look great. There’s a certain grimy aesthetic that we really like for that show. This one we wanted to just stretch a little bit and make something look a little bit more cinematic. In doing so it just takes more time. So you have more time to make something look great and then you have to sacrifice somewhere. That said, we still do five, six takes of whatever we want.”
Rob McElhenney, interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 1/19/2020
Charlie Day will join Season 2 of ‘Mythic Quest’
You’ll notice Day’s name in the credits of Mythic Quest. He created the show with McElhenney, Hornsby and Ganz but he was busy writing, directing and starring in the movie El Tonto when Season 1 was in production.
“Charlie and I wrote the original first draft of the show and then he went on to make his movie. So he was directing this movie that he had written, so he didn’t have a tremendous amount to do with the first season, but now in the second season, he’s come back and we wrote the first episode of the second season together. So that’s great, to know that I have somebody that I’ve worked with for a very long time that I can always count on, when something needs to be funnier, he’s the guy I call.”
Rob McElhenney, interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, 1/19/2020
