Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is an American comedyweb television series starring Rob McElhenney for Apple TV+. The series premiered on February 7, 2020. Apple TV+ renewed the series for a second season on January 18, 2020, ahead of its season 1 premiere. A special episode, entitled Mythic Quest: Quarantine, was also produced and aired on May 22, 2020.
On August 9, 2018, it was announced that Apple had given a series order to a new half-hour comedy series written by Rob McElhenney, Megan Ganz, and Charlie Day, all of whom are also set to executive produce alongside Michael Rotenberg, Nicholas Frenkel, Gérard Guillemot, Jason Altman, and Danielle Kreinik. Production companies involved with the series are slated to consist of RCG Productions, 3 Arts Entertainment, and Ubisoft Film & Television. On January 18, 2020, it was announced that Apple TV+ had renewed the series for a second season, ahead of its Season 1 premiere. Ubisoft, a large video game publisher, assisted with development of the series. McElhenney said the concept of the show resulted from a discussion Ubisoft had with him about producing a television show around video games. McElhenney had been invited to Ubisoft Montreal to discuss the project, and though he was initially hesitant, as he toured the studio, he saw the potential vision for the show. Since then, Ubisoft has assisted in designing the video game characters and game world, as well as providing other art assets for the show. Ubisoft also helped the writers with details of video game development to stay authentic to industry approaches. The first season consisted of nine episodes released on February 7, 2020. A special episode focusing on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was released on May 22, 2020.
Casting
Alongside the initial series announcement, it was confirmed that Rob McElhenney would star in the series. On February 1, 2019, it was announced that F. Murray Abraham, Imani Hakim, David Hornsby, Danny Pudi, Ashly Burch, Charlotte Nicdao and Jessie Ennis had joined the cast of the series.
Filming
In March 2019, it was reported by The New York Times that filming had concluded.
Marketing
On June 10, 2019, a trailer for the series was presented by McElhenney at Ubisoft's E3 2019 press conference, where he announced that Mythic Quest would premiere in the fall of 2019. On December 18, 2019, it was announced that the series would premiere on February 7, 2020.
Reception
The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 89% approval rating, based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.48/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "While it relies too heavily on the workplace comedy formula, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is nonetheless hilarious and stands out for exploring the gaming industry with intelligence, thoughtfulness, and sincerity." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
