Warning: Spoilers follow for the Season 3 premiere of Apple TV+’s “Mythic Quest.”
With F. Murray Abraham traipsing off to Sicily — he’s in the latest season of “The White Lotus” — he won’t be seen walking the halls of “Mythic Quest” as the critically acclaimed comedy returns for a third season this Friday on Apple TV+.
Abraham played C.W. Longbottom — the crusty and wildly inappropriate head writer of the “Mythic Quest.” In Season 2’s flashback episode “Backstory,” viewers learned the origin story of C.W., and how Ian Grimm (Rob McElhenney) found him to help create the game. At the end of Season 2, C.W. was still at Mythic Quest, even as Ian and Poppy Li (Charlotte Nicdao) announced they were leaving to launch their own company, GrimPop Studios.
Season 3 takes place about a year later, as the show’s characters — who have all been scattered about, including the Bay Area (Imani Hakim’s Dana and Ashly Burch’s Rachel) and prison (Danny Pudi’s Brad Bakshi, wrapping up a stint in the pokey for insider trading that he didn’t actually commit) — get back together for a party celebrating the return of C.W.
As organized by Jo (Jessie Ennis), the event is meant to welcome back C.W. after a global trip. But then C.W. doesn’t arrive — and David (David Hornsby), who has taken over Mythic Quest after Ian’s exit, is handed a letter. It’s from C.W., who reveals he has been given a terminal prognosis and has decided to go out in a blaze of glory, driving off the side of a cliff, “Thelma & Louise” style. His remains have then been shot into space via satellite, which the gang then spots from above.
And that’s it for C.W., as far as we know.
“It’s a bummer to not have Murray in this season,” McElhenney told reporters during a set visit in May. “But we recognize that C.W. is a beloved character and obviously a huge part of the show. So, we made sure that we have a really fitting tribute to him. We definitely address it in a big way.”
The visit included a tour of the new GrimPop Studios set — a starkly white office space that looks a lot like a spaceship. (And as viewers learn in the season opener, is actually just one floor down from Mythic Quest.)
“We wanted to find something that felt futuristic but also strange, but also you can understand why somebody like [Ian] would want to work in an environment like that, something clean with no lines,” McElhenney said. “It means there were no lines anywhere in there.”
Season 3 follows Ian and Poppy as they go about creating Hera, which was Poppy’s idea for the game. It’s going great early on — investors have offered them $50 million to sign on — but Poppy is soon forced to deal with her insecurities in partnering with Ian on the project. Meanwhile, Dana is back after a year of education funded by Poppy and Ian — but she realizes working for the two eccentrics, and having to police their bickering, is much more than she signed up for.
Dana’s girlfriend Rachel, meanwhile, is still in school at Berkeley, but she, too, is unhappy with that and finds herself back at Mythic Quest and under the spell of Brad — who has quickly weaseled his way back into a job there, thanks to Carol (Naomi Ekperigin).
“I think the thing that’s kind of exciting about this season for Dana and Rachel is that the conflict isn’t really within the relationship,” Burch said. “It’s more them pursuing their goals. We’re getting to see both Rachel but especially Dana follow their path and figure out what it means for them to be ambitious people and pursuing a career and the conflict that comes from that rather than it being about any sort of schism in their relationship.”
As for David, things seem to be going well for him early on. Mythic Quest’s Montreal-based owners are happy with how he’s running the game, and Jo is back by his side as his loyal assistant. Early in the season, a Mythic Quest movie goes into development – with Joe Manganiello as star — and David can’t wait to rub it in Ian’s face.
“One man will rise while the others fall,” Hornsby (who’s also an EP) said of his character. “David hits a couple high notes this season. But there’s, there’s no comedy without completely demeaning me. And on this show too.”
Unclear to David, however, is what Brad is really up to. Even this year, I had so much fun wondering pretty much in every scene, is this a scheme? Is Brad plotting or is Brad just getting a mochaccino?” Pudi said. “That’s such a fun place to exist in as an actor where you don’t really know if Brad has a plan yet or if there’s already a plan.”
In placing the two companies in the same building, there’s plenty of interaction going on even though Ian, Poppy and Dana are now at GrimPop. “We found ways to cross people over,” said executive producer Megan Ganz. “[David is] just not allowed to have Mythic Quest to himself. Our characters are all very meddlesome and so they’ve found their ways into getting into each other’s business.”
Also this year, in addition to McElhenney and Hornsby directing episodes, Pudi and Burch also directed for the first time.
“We like keeping it in the family here,” Ganz said.
As for whether they would replace the C.W. character with another elder, slightly out of touch, eccentric character, Ganz said the idea was pursued but ultimately shelved.
“We did talk about it,” she said. “But in the end, we decided that it’s just gonna shine a light on how he’s not there. It’s sort of like you have this cast and they’re so magical together and we didn’t want to add anybody into it in Season 3. We were delighted to have Naomi in more of the episodes this year because she had already been a part of the show. But we just felt like it wasn’t needed.”
