Summary

Collider’s Joe Schmidt talks with Side Quest writer John Harris and executive producers Ashly Burch and Katie McElhenney for Season 1.

Side Quest is a four-episode Mythic Quest anthology spin-off series.

Harris, Burch, and McElhenney discuss their favorite episodes to dig into and the inspirations behind them.

Side Quest is a fresh and thoughtful anthology series from Apple TV+ that expands the Mythic Quest universe while exploring the many corners of gaming and geek culture. Each standalone episode dives into a unique world — whether it’s game development, orchestral scoring, or comic book communities — highlighting how fandom intersects with identity, creativity, and connection, and capturing both the technical and deeply personal sides of creative passion.
In a recent interview hosted by Collider’s Joe Schmidt, executive producers Ashly Burch and Katie McElhenney, along with writer John Harris, reflect on their favorite episodes and inspirations.
Reflecting on the First Season of ‘Side Quest’

“If this is my reality of my dream job, then I’m doing okay.”

COLLIDER: I really enjoy these standalone episodes to get more of them in their own little capacity. I thought it was just brilliant in the way that you guys did it. What was the most fun episode to research, to dive into that space, since they’re all wildly different zones that have or are tangential to gaming or geek culture? Which one was the one that you guys really had fun researching and figuring out?
ASHLY BURCH: Oh, for sure, mine was “Fugue.” I started playing cello when I was in my 20s, and still play it very badly, so that’s a little bit of wish fulfillment and being able to be there. We went to Nashville for them to record a live orchestra. I cried the entire time I was there. It was just such an amazing experience. It’s something I feel really bonded to. And just getting into the weeds of what is that workplace? Because that’s what we wanted to explore in that episode is when your dream job becomes a reality. So I get to help make that happen while actually at my dream job. So I was like, “If this is my reality of my dream job, then I’m doing okay.” So that for me was just a really special experience. And getting to research that and just be immersed in that world was amazing.
I’m from Nashville. Did you guys record at the National Symphony?
BURCH: We were in this converted church somewhere in Nashville. It was incredible. An amazing experience.
That’s super cool. John, what was your favorite?
JOHN HARRIS: I like “The Last Raid” just because we got this very intensive crash course on how a game engine works and how a game is actually made, because we had to work with this company called Red Storm that was creating all the assets for us. Basically, we were trying to shoot a TV show with video game characters, but the process of that was basically making a game. So that was a really cool and interesting experience just because it was two groups of people that spoke totally different languages, and we had to come to this consensus of like, “Oh, okay.” So we kind of came to this common language and figured out what everybody was saying.
And it was like the things that you thought would be so easy are so complicated, and then you have in your head these other things that are going to be so complicated they just click a button like, “No problem.” It was just learning that aspect of it. It’s like, “Oh yeah, if we fix his eyebrows over here, that’s going to break this whole section over here.”
BURCH: So, how bad do you want those eyebrows?
Coding, right? Who would have thought?
There’s Plenty of Untapped Potential for ‘Side Quest’ Season 2

“There are definitely lots of places we would like to go.”

I imagine there are some things that were left on the table that you didn’t get to because there are so many different unique aspects to it. I think I spoke to Ashly and Megan before, and we talked about maybe tackling e-sports, but was there a topic that you really didn’t get to that you want to revisit and maybe in the future?
KATIE MCELHENNEY: There were so many. I feel like we had a lot of episodes that we were really excited to dive into, and you have only a certain amount of real estate. So I sort of almost don’t want to say them, because if we end up getting another season, then we will probably do them. As the show hopefully demonstrates, gaming as an ecosystem just extends and connects to so many different spaces. So there are infinite stories you can tell, so there are definitely lots of places we would like to go if we were lucky enough to get another season.
The comic book shop, as someone who used to work in one, I felt particularly seen, but also it was so unique because it explores Black spaces, as well, and that unique experience. What went into that episode, and how did you land on putting it in that comic shop in particular?
MCELHENNEY: That was really inspired by the co-writer of that episode, Javi Scott, who we all love very much and is probably the biggest nerd that any of us know, which is saying something. I know a lot of nerds. And he’s a Black nerd, and that is such a specific culture. Black culture is very specific, but there’s so much interesting stuff that goes into it, like the conversation, “Which characters are claimed as Black?” is a conversation that so many Black people have. So it’s truly ripped from the headlines of Javi’s life, a lot of that episode. And so we felt like that was such an interesting community to get to explore and to highlight. I think we decided on the comic book store because we thought that it would be fun to take it outside the gaming realm into another aspect of geek and nerd culture, and what does that look like?

Image via AppleTV+

HARRIS: I think it was important to us also to show a group of people you might not often see just kind of living their lives as they would, versus putting any weird pressure on it. Like this is very reflective. It’s obviously heightened because it’s a comedy and things like that, but it’s very reflective of how we’re trying to make something that’s authentic and reflective of people’s actual experience.
MCELHENNEY: Like a literal day in the life.
Side Quest is now streaming on Apple TV+.