Ashly Burch and Megan Ganz Talk ‘Mythic Quest’ Season 4, ‘Dungeons and Dragons,’ and AI [Interview]

As some of the minds behind Mythic Quest Season 4, Ashly Burch and executive producer Megan Ganz knew they had to address important topics while still going all out.

From the rise of artificial intelligence to Congressional hearings and more, Mythic Quest Season 4 feels like the culmination of many things currently happening in the industry. For better or for worse, Rachel and Dana, whose relationship could never be broken, find themselves in the middle of it all.

I had the chance to speak with Ashly Burch and executive producer Megan Ganz about the best moment Rachel and Dana shared together, the most important real-world element Mythic Quest Season 4 explores, and more. (You can watch the full interview below.)

Discussing the one episode between Rachel and Dana that fans should rewatch, Burch and Ganz referred to Mythic Quest Season 1 Episode 1. Both Burch and Ganz explained how that episode truly stuck with them up to this point.

“I’d like to go back to the pilot and watch how different your characters feel in that moment,” Ganz began. “Basically, we had one characteristic for [Rachel], which was ‘You’re in love with Dana.’ And then, [with] Dana, we were like, ‘She’s cool.'”

“You didn’t want to solidify who their characters were until you found the actors that work together, and then you build off that,” Ganz said. “It’s been really fun to move from that into, now you’re like a money-grubbing monetization person.”

“We’ve really seen them evolve and looking at the space, in your 20s, when you’re with somebody that you really care about,” Ganz explained. “You’re also going through the biggest shift in your life in terms of your career and what you’re gonna do forever.”

Watch the interview with Ashly Burch and Megan Ganz:

Furthermore, Burch emphasized the transformation that both Rachel and Dana had throughout Mythic Quest. “We feel a lot like the characters feel younger and just in a very different part of their lives,” Burch said.

“Being in this season, there’s a lot of maturation in terms of how we’ve written the characters and then also how we’ve portrayed the characters and their relationship in general,” Burch explained. “Now that we’ve gotten them into a place where they’re a solid relationship — now how do they navigate life?”

Focusing on Mythic Quest Season 4 a bit more, Burch and Ganz discussed a major issue: artificial intelligence. Given how AI played a significant role in the 2023 Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, this topic was bound to be explored.

“I think the big thing that we felt like we should talk about was probably AI,” Burch said. “It affects our industries as well. That’s part of the reason that we were on strike last year.”

Additionally, another important topic that needed to be explored was the rise of user-generated games. Social gaming platforms, like Roblox, Garry’s Mod, VRChat, and more, have contributed to both good and bad influences in today’s world.

“We wanted to talk about the fact that there’s a lot,” Ganz added. “There’s a huge surge of games that, platforms like Roblox, where people can make their own games and then share them with each other.”

Ganz also made a unique comparison between streaming platforms and YouTube uploads in regard to user creations.

“That’s threatening to the video game industry in the same way as YouTube is threatening to our industry, which is like, ‘Well, if anybody can make TV, then why will they watch ours,'” Ganz said.

Moreover, Ganz went further in-depth into how her knowledge about this, and the gaming industry as a whole, has helped her own writing style.

“I think learning about these user-generated games was really interesting to me because I wanted to look at the way in which the powers that be pivot to that,” Ganz said.

“The joke of the show for so long has been that Poppy and Ian are in charge, but David is technically their boss,” she continued. “They’re in charge because they’re the creative directors of the game, and what the user-generated content does is it flips that dynamic.”

“Seeing that flip back to its rightful place and like looking at that intersection between art and commerce and going, there’s lots of people that don’t see any problem with the democratization of creative,” Ganz said.

Though Mythic Quest has explored so many real-life ideas, there are also so many popular games that could provide a special episode.

Notably, Burch and Ganz have both participated in Dungeons and Dragons and Critical Role’s games. Burch also worked as a writer on The Legend of Vox Machina.

Given how popular Dungeons and Dragons has become with both Critical Role and Dimension 20, Burch and Ganz said they would love to incorporate those ideas in the future.

“We’ve talked about it,” Burch began. “Yeah, we could definitely do that. It’s huge!”

“Ashly and I have played Call of Cthulhu together,” Ganz laughed. “I was just a drunk old woman who chloroformed everybody all the time. We made it a skill, and I started getting better at it.”

“So yeah, we kind of do them all playing a game together this year, which is really fun,” Ganz added. “So it now has set precedent. Yes!”

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*Interview edited and condensed for clarity.

Mythic Quest Season 4 premieres on Wednesday, January 29, on Apple TV+.

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