Quest’s End continues the fantasy saga with their newest release, “Druid.” Matthew Lillard is launching the second season of his fantasy-inspired whiskey following “Paladin,” “Rogue,” “Warlock,” and “Dragon.” This new season begins with “Druid” and continues with “Monk,” “Wizard,” and “Revenant.”

This Dungeons & Dragons-inspired whiskey brand first debuted in October 2023. What makes this brand so unique is not just the fantasy inspiration, but how it celebrates the genre. Not only is each whiskey named after an iconic class or monster in Dungeons & Dragons it is also accompanied by a new chapter of the ongoing fantasy saga. The first season was written by Kate Welch, while the new season is penned by Andrea Stewart.

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Lillard shared why he loves the Druid class and bringing elements of it into the flavor profile of the new whiskey. He also broke down why the message of “Druid” is so important right now. Lillard also shared how they chose the order and revealed his feelings about returning to “Scream.”

Matthew Lillard Reveals Why He Loves The Druid Class

Temple of Geek: I know Druid is your favorite D&D class. Can you talk to me a little bit about what speaks to you about Druids?

Matthew Lillard: Yeah, I grew up playing Dungeon & Dragons with a collection of friends. I think every group has its own identity, and we’re a group of friends that enjoy the craftiness of D&D violence rather than just straight violence. I think it’s great to do 12 damage as you rage as an orc barbarians or a paladin smiting evil.

But for me, I’d much rather cast a grease spell and wipe out an entire party for two rounds than just do damage. So for me, playing a Druid has a craftiness about it that’s really exciting, and I like having a point of view. The thing about Druids is that they will do anything they can to defend the wilds, and so having that point of view for me is also really, really exciting.

Temple of Geek: How did you want to bring those elements into the Druid whiskey?

Matthew Lillard: The great news is that for people that don’t know, Quest End is built around multiple things, but one of the things that we do is we craft a story. This time it is written by Andrea Stewart. She is an amazing writer, and the art’s still being done by Tyler Jacobson. The great thing is that we give that story over to our master blender, Molly Troupe. She takes that story, we sort of do a deep dive on what the character class is and what Druids are known for, why Druids are cool.

And then she takes all that information and she interprets it in the liquid. So she’s not just taking random Kentucky whiskey and blending something, she’s taking it based on what she knows about the actual story. So as you’re drinking it, you’re drinking a liquid that’s been curated for that experience in that moment for that character in the story in this exact time and frame. It’s a totally different way than anyone else brings whiskey to market.

Temple of Geek: Can you talk to me about the Druid flavor profile and why it’s so unique?

Matthew Lillard: Spoiler alert, at the end of season one, we leave our paladin floating lost at sea, and she finds herself on a deserted island that feels very Pacific Northwest. It’s got this huge Druid grove right there on the water. So it really felt like a Pacific Northwest vibe. So [Molly] took that, where our paladin is when she wakes up in the story, and she builds it around that area.

So Druid is barrel aged in a rouge vermouth barrel, and then a rum barrel. The whiskey itself comes from and hails from the Pacific Northwest. That whole thing basically is built around the location of where we find ourselves in the opening scene in Book Five.

Temple of Geek: Oh, that’s so cool! One of my favorite things about fantasy is that you can look at our world through a slightly different lens, and I think it’s very cool that when you’ve really described Druid as “honoring the journey of embracing change, connection in the wild, magical truth of becoming yourself.” Why is that such an important message for people right now?

Matthew Lillard: We feel like we’re in a very politically chaotic time and we want to acknowledge the fact that trans kids and gay kids and people out there that feel different than other people are still loved. The more they grow into themselves, the better the world is.

So we just felt like Druid was the ability to shapeshift as a class in Dungeons and Dragons just felt like a really good metaphor for empowering kids and people and men and women and non-binary people sort of exploring and figuring out who they are. We just wanted to send a quiet and strong message that they’re loved and our brand acknowledges and loves them for who they are.

Matthew Lillard Breaks Down Quest’s End Planning Process

Temple of Geek: That’s so important, and I love that you guys are doing that. The first season we had Paladin, Rogue, Warlock and Dragon. This season we have Druid, Monk, Wizard, and Revenant. What was the process of deciding the order that you wanted?

Matthew Lillard: Well, early on we sat with Kate Welch and Tyler Jacobson, myself, Peggy Carol-Prescott, who’s our chief Creative Officer, and Justin Ware. We had the greatest little weekend. We sat in this little apartment in Pacific Northwest up in Seattle, and we dreamed about what we wanted the story to be like, who is our hero?

We crafted Seron of the Pit. She’s this Paladin whose found her voice and fight. She fights for her freedom in the opening frames of Paladin the first drop we had. And then we’ve sort of marked out where she was going to go across the 16 drop journey. So within that we were like, okay, well what classes do we want to make sure we include? What do we have to hit? Can we make bad guy bottles? We made Dragon last year.

So we put Dragon front and center on the bottle instead of the hero. Our company operates a little like a movie studio. So Justin and I both come from the film and television industry and we believe in creating franchises, not just one bottle and doing a million drops of that one bottle. That would be incredible, but what we do is four times a year we drop the next chapter. We’re always continuing to grow and expand and change. Which is what differentiates us from every whiskey company out there, every spirit company out there.

Temple of Geek: I love how you guys have really approached this from a story forward point of view. What does your new writer Andrea Stewart bring as a storyteller into this next season or chapters of the saga?

Matthew Lillard: She’s fantastic. She’s a bestseller. Kate Welch was our first writer for the first four books. She got busy so she stepped aside this season. We researched who was big in the fantasy space, and [Andrea Stewart’s] an epic voice. So we reached out. We were lucky that she wrote back and said she had some availability in between books and we jumped at the opportunity to work with her.

She’s been fantastic. She just brings a different voice. I mean, there’s just a different storyteller. She is well steeped in this world. She does violence really well. She creates space and time and she fills the world with details in a different way than Kate does or the way Justin and I do. She’s a full-time writer and she’s bringing her particular voice to the storytelling and it’s just been really lovely to work with her.

Temple of Geek: You’re going to be in “Daredevil Born Again” season two. That’s another very big genre with a huge fandom and fan base of superheroes. Have you ever thought about kind of, because you have fantasy, you have horror, have you ever thought about maybe a superhero?

Matthew Lillard: That’s funny. No, that hasn’t come across our plate yet. We have lots of plans. I mean, we have really big huge announcement coming out early 2026. We just dropped another collaboration with Critical Role. We did “Whitestone Courage,” which we’re super excited about. That’s actually shipping right now.

We have another collaboration we’re doing that’s coming out this September. We are always looking to shape and shift and move and add different lines and different sort of fandoms to our movie studio. But superheroes has never crossed our plate. No. I don’t know if superheroes and whiskey really makes sense, but that’s just me.

Temple of Geek: I don’t know. They’re pretty beat up after a fight.

Matthew Lillard: They’re probably beat after a long day of work. They probably need a nice firm drink. I don’t blame them.

Matthew Lillard On His Return To The Scream Franchise

Temple of Geek: How does it feel as an actor to be returning to the world of “Scream” now after the franchise has grown so much?

Matthew Lillard: Yeah, good. I mean, great. I was the most vocal advocate to bring Stu back for the last 10 years of my life. So I will never forget where I was when Kevin called me to say, Hey, would you be interested in coming back? I basically screamed in the middle of a park. I was on a walk and talking to my partners, at Beadle and Grimm’s. And I was like, oh my God. It was a very exciting day.

I’m excited to be back. I’m not the boy I was when I was 26 years old. I’m 55 years old at this point in my life, so I’m a little worried that I’m going to ruin sort of how people love Stu and love the franchise. But that said, now that I’ve already shot it, I’m excited for people to see it and I hope they love it.

Quest’s End “Druid” is available now for purchase.