Brennan Lee Mulligan Talks Dimension 20 Fantasy High Junior Year Villains & More

Summary The Bad Kids faced powerful enemies and villains in the Dimension 20 finale, using their learned lessons to save Spyer from destruction.

Fantasy High Junior Year continued the story, paying off years-long narratives and expanding the world of Spyer.

Brennan Lee Mulligan's insights on character development, reveals, and God lore show the depth of planning and improvisation in the show.

Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year followed the Bad Kids as they struggled to balance their toughest academic year, as a new mysterious threat was brewing and many of their allies were nowhere to be found. As the finale began, the Bad Kids faced off against powerful enemies, including Porter and Jace, who revealed themselves to be villains, and their evil counterpart, the Rat Grinders. In a two-part finale, with the fate of Spyer on their shoulders, once again the Bad Kids were able to use all they had learned to defeat their enemies and once again save Spyer from destruction.

Fantasy High holds a special place in the heart of the Dimension 20 fans, crew, and cast. Fantasy High is how Dimension 20 started six years ago and has become the most fleshed out of all the worlds, with three seasons of Fantasy High, The Seven, and Pirates of Leviathan all expanding upon the story of Spyer. Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year not only continued the story of the Bad Kids, but it also paid off stories that were years in the making.

Related Brennan Lee Mulligan Reveals Which Dimension 20 Seasons He Wants Animated Exclusive: Brennan Lee Mulligan reveals which two seasons of Dimension 20 he thinks would work especially well in the animation format and why.

Screen Rant interviewed Brennan Lee Mulligan about Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year. He broke down the big reveal about Porter that was years in the making and the moment he believes the Rat Grinders went too far in their thirst for power. Mulligan also discussed the expanding pantheon of Gods and lore in Spyer and what he would like to explore with that lore in a future Dimension 20 season of Fantasy High. Although he specified they are not actively talking about Senior Year at this point.

Brennan Lee Mulligan Breaks Down The Big Villain Reveals & The Moment The Rat Grinders Went Too Far

Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year ran the emotional gambit with huge revelations years in the making and outrageously hilarious moments of pure chaos. Mulligan nearly walked off set twice when Beardsley rolled two natural 20s as K2 which had major story implications. Mulligan explained why Simulacrum is the funniest spell and how surprised he has been by K2 throughout.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: What can you do? I mean, literally what can you do? Simulacrum is the funniest spell in the world. You've made a British version of yourself out of snow who's a clone. Every time I see the art of K2 with the, "Straight as the lines on the Union Jack, governor," I go, this is... Who could have predicted? Certainly not me. Certainly not me.

I have to talk to you about the Porter, Jace reveal. Such a good reveal. I know that was kind of inspired by Emily just consistently saying, "I think Porter's evil," but how did that work out in your brain? Because you've been thinking about this at least since Sophomore Year.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: There's nothing funnier to me than yes and-ing the thing... Because my players are the funniest people on the planet, and they love to goof. They love to goof and they love to riff. As a Dungeon Master, I'm tasked with keeping things on the rails and making sure there's a plot and the villains are doing stuff and yada yada. So it's like, "How do I be playful?" I can't disrupt, because then we're all disrupting. They can't move it back on the rails. They don't know what the rails are. So you can do one of two things, in my head: constantly yank at the players to be like, "Come back to the plot." Or, go to them where their bit is and go, "Yeah, this is a funny bit." Also the longer you spend in it, the more it's becoming the rails. Whatever you goof around in is going to be the plot. It's so much easier to go with the energy rather than against it. So that's a lot of what it is. It's like, "Cool, Emily is suspicious of Porter. That makes it easier if he's the bad guy." That becomes the joy, of following those instincts.

I love the Rat Grinders and how they're just this dichotomy. Kipperlily being jealous that her parents are alive is the most psychotic teenage nonsense, and I absolutely loved it. Talk to me about leaning into not just that they are the opposite of The Bad Kids, but their corruption, because they were really sweet as the High-Five Heroes before they followed Kipperlily down this path.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: There's an interesting question there. I think that for a lot of it, there were hints, and most of the things we've seen of their sweetness are contextual from bits of writing, little things, investigations. But I think that you can see... It's both. There are elements that they were not always like they are now, but the seeds of what they are now are there in the past. I think that when you look at the High-Five and then eventually becoming the Rat Grinders. There's an indication there of Kipperlily's focus because yeah, the High-Five Heroes is sweet, but it's also sort of a indication that Kipperlily is pushing them towards, for lack of a better word, do we have something that we're about? The Bad Kids get their name because they've all been given detention on the first day and it's connected to their story. Whereas you get the sense from the High-Five Heroes that it's not actually describing anything. It's like the person being like, "Our inside joke is going to be high-fives." And you're like, "Well, everyone high-fives." So there's an indication there, for me at least, that Kipperlily is trying to make a comradery right away that is not actually there. It's not based in something that happened to them. For me, it's funny, I think the High-Five Heroes part of it is sweet, but there's actually something even a little bit sinister to it to me, of being like, "We're the High-Five Heroes." And you're like, "You've pitched a name; we all just met. We don't have anything going yet." "We all high-fived!" And you're like, "Well, you high-fived right when we all got together for the first time." So I think that it's both; there's parts about it that are like, oh yeah, they used to be different. But also there's seeds of stuff there in the beginning, I think.

How do you think they're going to diverge now that they don't have Kipperlily leading them?

Brennan Lee Mulligan: I think that the future of that group is very... I think I leave it to the players, but as you're saying with Kipperlily, her leadership of that group to me, the moment that is the fundamental, very critical to the season and understanding it I think, is that killing of Lucy Frostblade. Where that is the moment where power and the opportunity for power is chosen over all else. The participation of everybody in that, that the other Rat Grinders came in and that they killed Lucy Frostblade, is the ultimate like, "Oh, we can understand wanting to have the status that The Bad Kids have. This was not worth that. It is not acceptable. Even if you really want to have something, you can't kill an innocent person who is also your best friend to get it. That is evil." And so I think that that's really the turning point for them. I think, too, that there's a thing with them, there's sort of a you can't have it both ways. The strategy that the Rat Grinders employ to get powerful is to do this grinding. Eventually, they get leveled up also by these powerful monsters that are being killed, they're allowed to join in with, but fundamentally it's like you can't have your cake and eat it too. Kipperlily as a villain to me is very focused on, "Ooh, I can get by with the letter of the law and not the spirit. There's a better way to get powerful as an adventurer other than going on these important missions where you can probably die." That's the other thing, too, is you look at The Bad Kids, the Bad Kids run into that Corn Gremlin fight, and two of them die. They took a huge risk to save the school and stop something bad from happening, and the Rat Grinders never take that risk. So even as Kipperlily is like, "Why aren't I getting what they're getting?" It's like, you're not making the choices they're making. Obviously grinding rats in the woods is a safer way to gain levels and the reward for doing it the safe way is you've never saved the world.

Brennan Lee Mulligan Explains Why He Pulled Back On Beloved Fantasy High NPCs

"It's Really Important to Grow"

Fantasy High has introduced beloved NPCs including Arthur Aguefort, Gilear, Tracker, Ayda Aguefort, and so many others. However, many of them had much smaller roles this season. Mulligan broke down why it was important to make room for new NPCs and how taking Arthur Aguefort out of the equation was an important narrative decision.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: A lot of this was returning to a mirror of Freshman Year, even ending the fight at the gymnasium and the year-long mystery of it all. First of all, Ayda and Arthur being on this big road trip together felt funny to me. And it's also a part of Ayda's story that was unresolved. Her and her relationship to her father is a big question mark at the end of Sophomore Year. That's an intense thing. And so the idea of them having this bonding trip while she's writing love letters to Fig from the ancient past felt very fun. Aguefort needs to be gone for some of these story elements to happen with Grix, with the student president election, and everything else like that. It's really important to grow and it's really important to give yourself challenges. Obviously, we have some beloved NPCs that are around; Aelwyn and Ragh are very present in the season. But if Junior Year is just a celebration of the creative choices we made in Freshman and Sophomore Year, I think it becomes stale. If all that Sophomore Year was, was talking about the NPCs we love from Freshman Year, maybe we don't meet Ayda. So I think it was important to give space in the season for new characters like Mazey Phaedra, or even some very minor characters just like Gertie Bladeshield. I just love those characters. It's fun to see them get a moment to shine. And to also blow out Aguefort like, no, this is a much larger school. There's a lot going on.

I also love that you actually made Gilear cursed and passed that on to Fig. I thought that was such a cool thing to have Fig grapple with this season.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: A lot of that was coming from Emily. Emily wanted some fun mechanical stuff to grapple with. She was like, "Could Fig be having a problem with her powers?" And so we came up with the curse actually to accommodate Emily's desire to kind of do what Fabian did in Sophomore Year and have a diminishment in powers be a fun part of the game.

How dare you end this on a cliffhanger with Kalina, Buddy Dawn and the Birth of Bakarath. I was like, "Come on, Brennan. We had it all wrapped up and now you're making me want Senior Year!" What are you doing?

Brennan Lee Mulligan: I don't think I'll ever end a Fantasy High season with not a cliffhanger because the thing with Fantasy High is it's set in a world that's lovingly poking fun at a lot of D&D tropes. One of the things about D&D worlds... Like if you look at Middle Earth, Middle Earth has Sauron. It used to have Morgoth, but now it has one bad guy with one ring that you have to throw in one volcano. D&D worlds are made to have endless adventure. In a world of endless adventure, it feels insane. There's so many bad guys. There's so many evil factions. How many dungeons full of monsters are there? This place is lousy with monsters. And so the idea of Fantasy High, in a world where there's an adventuring high school, think about how a world would need to be to warrant a high school for adventurers. That means that there are 20 apocalypses going on at any time, right? There are so many problems. So every season has to end in the cliffhanger. Otherwise, what was the adventuring high school for? It can't ever just be okay, there's got to be a new problem.

Further Exploring Kristen's Story & The Spyer Pantheon In A Future Fantasy High Season

Spyer is the most developed world of Dimension 20 with three seasons of Fantasy High and multiple spin-offs expanding the lore. Mulligan expressed his delight about how the pantheon of Gods has grown organically, largely due to how Beardsley has portrayed Kristen Applebees' story and her "journey of discovery." He also teased that there is more in that corner of Spyer with the Gods and Kristen's journey that he would like to delve into at some point in the future.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: It's the part of the show that's grown the most organically, and it's also a testament to the power of PCs. This world-building is in relation to Ally Beardsley's choice of how to play Kristen. If Kristen is not on a journey of discovery and questioning, we don't get any of this insight into the gods. Ankarna, Ruvina, Galicea, Sol, Helio, Cassandra, obviously. Oh, there's one thing too. I'll point something out because someone mentioned to me, they were like, "How was the name Cassandra written if Kristen made up the name Cassandra in Sophomore Year?" I had never interpreted Ally saying Cassandra as creating the name. I have always interpreted it as Kristen remembering the name; that when I asked Ally to make it up, it was pulling the name out of the ancient past, and it was literally revelation. It was a moment of divine revelation as Kristen goes, "Your name is Cassandra," and returns the ancient name. So a little asterisk from your boy. I love the pantheon and I love Logran Soulforger from The Seven. It rules, and I'm deeply grateful for having this many seasons to explore it. I think, and there's no plans to at the moment, but should we ever come back to Spyre, I have a lot of ideas for how to add a really cool level of complexity to that particular part of the world building, and thinking about what Kristen's journey is. I don't know. I would be very excited to one day far, far in the future, get back in the saddle with Ally and deal with the gods of Spyre.

Which character story did you find the most surprising this season?

Brennan Lee Mulligan: God, that's a great question. I think that, well, K2. I'd say, no, I think the one that I found the most surprising probably, I do think actually Kristen. I do think Kristen ending a season with the same god she started with is a change. It reflects a growth in the character because there's a world where she goes like, "Okay, I'm going to save Cassandra, but then I'm moving on." And she doesn't move on. And I think that I was very ready for Ally to, just for continuing to hit the character game of like, "Okay, it's not doubt." But no, there is a firmness there. I think that would be a very fun thing to explore with that character in the future too. Being like, "Okay, I left a thing that wasn't working for me. And then I left the thing that I went to after that thing. And then I got here and there's problems again. Does that mean I leave? No. No. Now, I don't leave. Now I stay and fix the problems." I think that that is a very cool thing to see in a story of deconstruction and revelation and reinvention. What does the choice mean to keep going even though it's not ideal when you get there?

I think her having a pantheon makes the most sense for Kristen, just because doubt is a hard one to land on and have that be the only thing. So having the dawn and all that stuff really makes sense for that element too. I thought that was a very cool decision that I hope we can see play out.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Yeah, a million percent. A million percent. That part of that journey and the relationship there between conviction and doubt, justice and mystery, it just feels there's something there that you want to honor both those things and it feels very cool. Yeah, I love it. I love that world and I love the players so much and all the decisions they made. It was just incredible.

I really hope we do that. I was actually curious about not Fantasy High Senior Year, because I figured it's going to be like five years from now if we get that, but is there a part of Spyer you'd like to explore further, be it in the current timeline or even the past, like looking at Sandra Lynn's history and that kind of stuff? Is there something where you've been like, "Oh, that's really interesting. We touched on it, but we never really dug into it"?

Brennan Lee Mulligan: There's so much lore to Spyre, and it's the nature also of these improvisational stories that you're never going to be able to touch on everything. There's also a big part of it, too, that's like to make these worlds feel real, you cannot have an efficiency of information that everything always relates to a central plot and wraps up. Every once in a while, like Lydia's adventuring party, it's like, Oh, there's parts of that that tie into the main thing. But also, Lydia just had an adventuring party. She was an adventurer, right? They had other stuff they were doing. And you see that a lot of, what's the Vulture Dimension? I don't know. There's a lot of weird stuff going on. The world is big and vast and full of strangeness. And I think that definitely backstory stuff, I mean, Sandra Lynn's backstory has partially been hinted at in that season, and that was definitely intentionally left. There was enough going on this season. But that's a revelation. So Sandra Lynn's backstory and the NPCs that we see that she's connected to, that's something left for future seasons potentially. But again, none of that's being discussed right now. But in other words, Spyre always has more problems. You solve one thing and then the next problem reveals itself. It's the nature of a world built around constantly needing adventure.

Brennan Lee Mulligan Recalls Very Important People (Or Doesn't!)

"I Don't Remember A Single Thing I Did As Augbert"

Mulligan also recently appeared on Dropout's Very Important People where Vic Michaelis and another comedian sit down for a fully improvised interview. The comedian who is the guest on this talk show has had a complete make-over with costume, prosthetics, hair, and make-up all changed to create a character who they will have to originate backstory for on the spot. Mulligan joked about how he doesn't remember anything from his time as Augbert, but praised Michaelis.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Thank you. I don't remember a single thing I did as Augbert. I was sweating like someone had turned a hose on it. I was so hot. I have no memory of that shoot day, but I'm very glad that people seem to like it.

It feels particularly mean to cover you in fur and long hair.

Brennan Lee Mulligan: Conversations were had. Conversations were had where I went, "Hey, if I'm ever back on this show, maybe I'm a guy in a tank top and shorts. That'd be fun. We could do that. Want to do that next time? Not put me in a carpet, beard gum on my face, covered in hair? I'm already covered in hair. I don't need more hair." That was delightful. It was such a joy. And Vic Michaelis is like the best. So I don't know. Life is really good. I'm very proud of these projects and I deeply appreciate your kind words. It's always a pleasure to talk.

About Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year

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Fantasy High Junior Year continues the adventures of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy Bad Kids. Following their successful defeat of the dragon Kalvaxus and the Nightmare King, they will face something even scarier...their future. The Bad Kids will begin to question their path after high school as they continue to find themselves, go on adventures, and get into trouble.

Check out our other Fantasy High Junior Year interviews:

Dimension 20: Fantasy High Junior Year is available now on Dropout.

Source: Screen Rant Plus