What is The Quest on Disney+ about?

The Quest is back and bringing audiences to the world of Everealm in a reboot of the show that aired for one season in 2015 on ABC. The series is a unique hybrid of scripted and unscripted storytelling (think Lord of the Rings meets The Amazing Race), in something of a “choose your own adventure” story. It’s a reality competition show living inside an established fantasy world — and if you’ve ever wanted to dive into your favorite fantasy world and become a hero, this is the show for you.

In The Quest, eight real-life teenagers (all fans of fantasy storytelling) find themselves as Paladins living in the fictional world of Everealm. They’ll be completely immersed on the grounds of a castle, where they’ll meet royalty, mystical creatures, and even an evil Sorceress. Tasked with fulfilling a prophecy to save the kingdom of Everealm, the group of teenage heroes must continue on their journey and face a series of trials testing their physical and mental strength.

Earlier this year at WonderCon in Anaheim, The Quest’s executive producers Jane Fleming and Mark Ordesky shared that the idea for The Quest came to them years ago when producing The Lord of The Rings. While watching the film’s actors in a pre-production training camp learning to fight with swords and shoot arrows, Fleming and Ordesky wanted to create a show where everyday-people learned the same skills. They teamed up with executive producers Bertram Van Munster and Elise Doganieri (The Amazing Race) and executive producers Michael Williams and Rob Eric (Queer Eye) to help bring the series to life.

Doganieri said that for The Quest, the challenges that the constants face are woven into the storyline and this newly created world. “We took the mythology and illustrations and the reality contestants, and what we wanted to do was immerse them in the world and felt like the challenges and the competition were organic to the storyline,” she shared.

Is The Quest a reality competition show?

What makes The Quest unique is that it’s a blend of scripted and unscripted storytelling. Doganieri explained that the storyline was written first, and then the challenges were built to fit seamlessly within that story. “It gives the contestants… a real experience living in a castle and being called upon by these scripted characters… where they’re faced with something,” she said. “But it is organic to the environment and the castle and the storyline.”

Jane Fleming went on to tease that about halfway through The Quest, we’ll see how the scripted and reality storylines affect one another. “There’s a complete intersection where the contestants and what they’re doing starts impacting what happens in the scripted storylines,” she said. “The storylines affect the contestants, and you start watching real people transform into the heroes that they’ve dreamt of being.”

Watch the trailer for The Quest on Disney+

Get ready to dive into Everealm and cheer for a group of worthy Paladins. The Quest is available to stream on Disney+ starting May 11.