Posted in: Apple, TV | Tagged: mythic quest

Mythic Quest Star Ashly Burch on "Side Quest" Spinoff, TLOU & More

Ashly Burch (Mythic Quest) spoke with Bleeding Cool about spinoff Side Quest, if she's been approached for a The Last of Us cameo, and more.

Ashly Burch landed a big opportunity to expand the AppleTV+ gaming dramedy Mythic Quest to expand on the franchise with the four-episode anthology series Side Quest, co-creating with John Harris and Katie McElhenney, touching on various corners of the pop culture community. On top of her memorable role in live-action as Rachel, who was originally a tester but became more involved in the MMORPG, Burch is also accomplished in the voiceover world with roles in the Borderlands franchise as Tiny Tina/Tina, Mortal Kombat franchise as Cassie Cage, and The Last of Us Part II as Mel. Burch spoke to Bleeding Cool about whether there was any talk about season five plans had AppleTV+ not cancelled Mythic Quest, developing Side Quest, if she has a cameo in season two of HBO's The Last of Us, and what her most popular roles are according to fans.

Mythic Quest Star Ashly Burch on If There Were Any Season 5 Plans for Rachel, Developing 'Side Quest', The Last of Us Guest Spot?

Bleeding Cool: Had the series gone to season five, were there discussions on where both Rachel and Dana (Imani Hakim), or perhaps just your character, could have gone? Could there be potential for a spin-off?

Yeah, we never talked about any of the characters spinning off. We made 'Side Quest,' which was a four-episode anthology that was self-contained stories, and Rob's character, Ian, made an appearance in that show (episode one, 'Song and Dance'), but otherwise it was about all new characters. We got to make 'Side Quest,' which was cool, but we never really talked about a particular character having a spinoff.

What went into the process of developing 'Side Quest?' Were there other stories that were thrown in the mix, and then you picked the four best ones, or did what you had work right away?

We had a bunch of different ideas, and there are several ideas we didn't get to make, which is too bad. We wanted very different types of tones, and we knew at the very beginning that we wanted to make (episode four) 'The Last Raid,' which is the in-game episode, because we thought that would be fun and ambitious to do something that was almost entirely in-game. Other episodes spoke to us, like [episode three] 'Fugue' is pulled a lot from a lot of Katie McElhenney's passions. She learned to play cello and she loves it, and we did research about…there's a great story about the orchestra for 'Phantom of the Opera,' which has been the same group of people basically for 30 years, and how that develops from this dream job into being something that's like an office job. The guy next to you eats a tuna sandwich in the pit every day, and you're like, "What the hell are you doing, man?" We thought that was compelling, and with 'Pull List,' we wanted to showcase the black nerd experience. Javier Scott, who was the co-writer of that episode, is a dyed-in-the-wool black nerd; it's its own culture, and it is really fascinating. We thought that would be a really cool thing to highlight.

Shifting gears, a lot of the talk is about the newest season of 'The Last of Us,' and some of the actors involved in the games have made cameos. There are those like Merle Dandridge and Jeffrey Wright, who play their game counterparts on the HBO series. I was wondering if, by chance, you filmed a cameo for the show.

I haven't filmed a cameo, but I love Craig [Mazin]. He and I met on 'Mythic Quest', and if he wanted me to and asked me to jump, I would just ask, "How high?" But no, I haven't filmed anything yet.

There's so much I want to ask you because you're in so many different things I enjoy, so I'll just ask, what role do most fans approach you about?

I would say it's probably a toss-up between Aloy in (Guerrilla Games/Sony's) 'Horizon' (franchise), Chloe in (Dontnod/Square Enix) 'Life is Strange', and Tiny Tina in (Gear Box/2K Games) Borderlands. It doesn't seem like one completely eclipses the other. I get tons of feedback, and a lot of people talk to me about those three characters in particular.

All four seasons of Mythic Quest (with a new ending) and Side Quest are available on AppleTV+.

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