Side Quest, the all-new anthology series from Ubisoft for Apple TV+, is out now. The anthology series takes inspiration from Mythic Quest's standalone episodes A Dark Quiet Death, Backstory, Sarian, and the recently-aired Rebrand. These episodes step away from the antics of Ian Grimm, Poppy Li, and everyone else at Mythic Quest HQ, and dive into storylines that highlight new characters and backstories of existing characters within self-contained stories.

Mythic Quest's standalone episodes have always been well-received by audiences, and have become a hallmark for the series. When the time came to develop and pitch a Mythic Quest spinoff, creating a series made entirely of standalone episodes was top of mind.

"Our team at Ubisoft has always been interested in the idea of doing a stand-alone series about the impact games have on players' lives," says Margaret Boykin, head of Ubisoft Film and Television Content. "So it was a wonderful marriage to be able to finally execute on this idea as part of the Mythic Quest universe and create Side Quest."

While developing the anthology series, the writers wanted to ensure each story kept Mythic Quest's balance of humor and heart, while at the same time using Side Quest as an opportunity to tell stories that wouldn't necessarily fit into the parent show's arc. The driving idea behind the show is that if Mythic Quest depicts Ian, Poppy, and the rest of the cast as gods making decisions about the game, Side Quest is about the mere mortals affected by those decisions. To help develop these stories in an authentic way, the creative team used producing partner Ubisoft Film & Television to research topical issues surrounding not only the people who work on video games, but the people who play and love them as well.

"With every season of Mythic Quest, and now with Side Quest, we bring all of our knowledge of the games industry as well as the player habits, people, the choices, the characters, and generally what we know of how games affect people," says Boykin. "And Ubisoft, as a global company, has the resources and people all over the world that allows us to get that direct input, help inform us, and answer questions that allow us to make sure we're telling authentic stories."

Like Season 4 of Mythic Quest (whose season finale aired today), Side Quest's episodes focus on themes of work-life, or even play-life, balance. The first episode, Song and Dance, is all about Phil the Art Director as he tries to go on a romantic Hawaiian getaway, only to be constantly interrupted by the whims and desires of Ian. Pull List, the second episode, takes place in a Black-owned comic book store, where multiple patrons argue over who should get the sole copy of the new Mythic Quest comic. The third episode, Fugue, follows a musician who is part of the orchestra that records Mythic Quest's in-game score and struggles to keep her passion for music as she struggles to meet her conductor's demands and her personal life falls away. Finally, The Last Raid is a story about a group of Mythic Quest players embarking on one final raid before they go their separate ways for college. The Last Raid is also a machinima-style episode, taking place almost entirely in-game.

"I think the episode anthology format is fantastic, because we don't have the responsibility of ongoing characters arcs," says Boykin. "It gives us a lot freedom to play a lot with tone and genre in self-contained stories."

Side Quest stars Rob McElhenney, Anna Konkle, Derek Waters, William Stanford Davis, Bria Henderson, Rome Flynn, Leonard Robinson, Gary Kraus, Annamarie Kasper, Esai Morales, Shalta Grand, and many more. The series is developed by and executive produced by Ashly Burch, John Howell Harris, and Katie McElhenney, with Megan Ganz, Rob McElhenney, David Hornsby, Charlie Day, Todd Biermann, Nick Frenkel, Michael Rotenberg, Margaret Boykin, and Genevieve Jones also serving as executive producers.

Side Quest is produced for Apple TV+ by Ubisoft Film & Television, Lionsgate, and 3 Arts Entertainment.

Watch Side Quest, as well as its parent series Mythic Quest, exclusively on Apple TV+ today.