Rob McElhenney is down to give another TV mashup a shot after the runaway success of the Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia crossover. This time, though, it’s Mythic Quest‘s turn.
Tied to the Season 4 premiere of the hit Apple TV+ comedy, McElhenney — who serves as writer, producer, and star of Mythic Quest — sat down with Decider and chatted about his workplace comedy, what is still ahead for the It’s Always Sunny and Abbott Elementary crossover episode, and which other show he is dying to weave into his own video game world.
Given McElhenney’s instrumental role in the Abbott and It’s Always Sunny event — he first flagged the idea on X back in February 2024 — it’s no surprise that Mythic Quest fans have been dying to know if he could see this show meshing well with any other AppleTV+ series. It’s a question he has thought about and has an answer to.
“I feel like Severance and Mythic Quest aren’t that far away from each other. They’re both workplace-related. One is hell, the other is Severance,” McElhenney joked.
McElhenney is, of course, referencing the Apple TV+ drama starring Adam Scott where workers undergo a surgical procedure to sever their work side of their brain and personal side. The show is currently airing its second season and is completely tonally different than Mythic Quest‘s silly and upbeat tenor.
Acknowledging that welding the two shows could be a challenge, McElhenney added, “I’m not really sure how that would work, but I think it would. I think it would work pretty interestingly.”
It’s the same kind of sentiment that many fans had when it came to the Abbott x It’s Always Sunny episodes, though. The running joke on social media for weeks after the announcement that the two Philadelphia-based shows would collab was that the Paddy’s Pub gang should not be anywhere near any kind of school, let alone one of the elementary variety. Fast forward to the Abbott Elementary episode “Volunteers,” where Mac (McElhenney), Frank (Danny DeVito), Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) are helping out around the school as court-mandated community service. The gang dumped various objects, including a Tesla Cybertruck, in the Schuylkill River. While Abbott kept it PG with their version, Day already told Decider that their take is going to be “much more R-rated” for the fans.
As for what McElhenney can tease for the It’s Always Sunny version of the Abbott crossover, his response to the other AppleTV+ show his co-stars recommended for a crossover, and what Mythic Quest does for him creatively, keep reading for Decider’s full interview…
DECIDER: Headed into Season 4, what are you most excited for fans to see this season, and what were you most excited to explore for your own character?
ROB MCELHENNEY: Well, it’s always the challenge in making a television show is making sure you deliver on the promise of the show on an episode-to-episode basis, where people know what they’re tuning into and are excited to come and see the dynamics that have played out over the years. However, you also want to surprise people and to make sure that you’re not just regurgitating the same thing over and over and over again. So we believe that this season of the show we were able to surprise and delight, but also make sure that you remember that you were watching Mythic Quest.
Surprise and delight. I know you just did an Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny crossover. Is there a show within the Apple TV universe that you could feasibly see crossing over with Mythic Quest or one that maybe you just would want to crossover?
I feel like Severance and Mythic Quest aren’t that far away from each other. They’re both workplace-related. One is hell, the other is Severance. So I’m not really sure how that would work, but I think it would I think it would work pretty interestingly.
When I talked to Danny [Pudi], he said that Shrinking could be fun, but that it would solve all your problems and then it wouldn’t make for a good television show.
That’s the issue. Once you solve all the conflict, then there’s no story and then there’s no comedy.
Absolutely. And I talked with Charlie [Day] about the Abbott Elementary and It’s Always Sunny crossover. And he teased something very different for the It’s Always Sunny side. Can you tease anything there?
Well, that’s the beauty of the way we shot those episodes is that it’s the same story except told through a different lens. So we were able to do the Abbott Elementary tone that’s already aired and people got to enjoy – I hope they enjoyed. But that same story is going to be told now through the Sunny lens in a few months. And I think we’re going to surprise quite a few people.
And I was taking a look through your filmography and also Kaitlin’s. Between the two of you, you guys are on seven or eight shows. I have to imagine you really try to emphasize work ethic and being creatively fulfilled. What about Mythic Quest really fills up a creative cup that maybe the other projects don’t?
Mythic Quest is one of the only shows that I work on that is a comedy about fictional characters who feel like real human beings. You know, Sunny, we’re ostensibly satirical cartoon characters. And Welcome to Wrexham, for example, is a documentary about real people. And even Kaitlin’s show [High Potential], which is incredible, is a drama about crime – murder most specifically. But Mythic Quest is the only show in our universe where it’s real people going to work every day. I think we have a responsibility to try to create the funniest and most entertaining version of a workplace comedy we can, but also to delve into all the cultural touchstones that make life worth living.
Mythic Quest Season 4 is currently streaming on Netflix. New episodes release on Wednesdays.