At WonderCon, the first official trailer was released of the upcoming revival reality competition, The Quest. For those who remember the original, the fantasy series took part in the world of Everealm and incorporated both scripted and unscripted elements. In the end, the One True Hero was found who would rid the kingdom of the dark power known as Verlox.
The new iteration follows the same basic premise but with alterations to cater to a family audience. The show boasts some heavy weight creatives, particularly in the world of reality television. Mark Ordesky and Jane Fleming are part of Court Five Productions who executive produced The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Elise Doganieri is the co-creator of The Amazing Race and Michael Williams and Rob Eric are executive producers of Queer Eye. We spoke with them to learn more.
One of the most noticeable differences in The Quest revival is that the contestants, or paladins, are all teenagers. Watching these youths grow throughout the season could make for compelling television as Doganieri explained.
“We wanted to put something on the air with kids that were very relatable to other teenagers. Where they could see themselves. Even as an adult, you will see yourself in one of these kids and say that was me. You see these kids grow over the time they’re on the show in a very positive way.”
“Because there are no eliminations, they can fully develop their sense of who they are and get over certain things. That maybe they thought, I’m not the popular kid or I’m the shy kid. This throws them into a world where they can’t be that shy kid anymore. You have to step up. You have to participate. It kind of forces them into becoming a bigger more mature version of themselves.”
“It is very inspirational. You see these kids, they don’t always succeed at everything, but because there are no eliminations, the support they get from the other contestants is really wonderful to watch. They’re all there for a common purpose. There is a winner. There is a One True Hero in the end. But you see them all supporting each other. It’s really amazing.”
There was a lot of work that went into creating the fantasy world. So, with these teens, the focus is more on who they are in Everealm rather than the various backgrounds they came from. It was about following them on this particular journey Fleming shared.
“The idea was to let’s drop them in as human beings and not worry about home. Let’s be in Everealm. Let’s see these young people participate in it. We made it sort of an Everealm immersion experience rather than learning much about where they come from. They definitely talk about home but it wasn’t a focus.”
The pandemic also forced a change in location. Initially, The Quest was set to return to the original castle in Austria but due to travel restrictions they had to find a domestic one. Williams spoke about how he found the new location.
“When we had the original show, we filmed in Austria. I had spent months and months of time looking for the right castle. The biggest issue in filming is who owns it. If it’s owned by some historical trust, you’re never going to be able to do as much as you want to do. It’s really tight. The one in Austria, one guy, a count, owned it. It was in his family for 200 years and we were all set to go there but due to COVID we couldn’t.”
“I had previously looked at Castello di Amorosa, which is owned by one guy who runs the winery. He built it 20 years ago. Got craftsmen from all over Europe to build it exactly. I’m telling you, when you’re in a hallway, you’re back in time. There’s nothing that feels modern whatsoever. Even the dust on things. It felt really great. To be honest, that was our only choice.”
The hybrid nature of The Quest that straddles the line between reality and scripted television made for some tricky filming at times. You want to capture genuine reactions with the perfect angles and backgrounds especially when you might only have one shot. Eric gave a behind the scenes talk on how the sausage gets made.
“No second takes. There’s a lot of narrative in this one. There’s a lot of scripted scenes that don’t take place with the kids just like a normal movie. Not every scripted character is in every scene. So, the kids weren’t in some of the scripted scenes. The scripted scenes that happened in front of them, they were well rehearsed and they got one take to do it.”
“But then we can do some pick-ups with them after to do close ups. We can’t do over the shoulders because the kids weren’t there. We merge it together a little bit but the kids saw everything. I don’t think we ever had a mistake. There was no moment where somebody said a name wrong or somebody didn’t have the right where to go to or what part of the story. We just enhanced it with a better take because there was a fireplace behind where we wanted the shot at. They were awesome. The actors were amazing.”
“All the special effects happen in front of them. All the monsters are head to toe in their costumes. There isn’t an inch of skin that is exposed out of that costume. No puppets. None of that. It all happens. Everything had to be set like they were living in that time period or in that world.”
The writers of The Quest built this extensive world with great amounts of mythology. Fleming teased a bit about the fantasy kingdom, the conflict the paladins were stepping into, and one of the main antagonists.
“The sorceress Tavora. When we’re at this part of the story, and you’ll see her in the first scene, she is hellbent on taking over Everealm. She’s doing pretty well at it. We’re in dark days when our paladins are beckoned to Everealm. They’re sort of a last hope and they are part of a prophecy. An ancient prophecy that most people don’t believe in anymore. But King Magnus does and he finds the artifact and calls for the heroes. That’s right in the first moments.”
“But Tavora, yeah, she’s mad and you’ll find why she’s mad. She’s totally justified to be angry. She is fueled by the nefarious Ferals. The Ferals are the anti-Fates. They are sort of light and dark. They coexist and this is sort of a thing in Everealm, good and bad go back and forth.”
Ordesky also spoke of how the sorceress is a layered character.
“One of the good things about Tavora, which you’ll discover, like all great villains or antagonists, she has reasons that she feels are incredibly reasonable. When she relates them, [you feel] I guess I can see how you came to that conclusion.”
The entire season of The Quest revival will be released May 11 on Disney+.
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