“Dimension 20: Titan Takedown” debuted with an action-packed and comedy-filled first episode. This season stars professional wrestlers Xavier Woods, Kofi Kingston, Bayley, and Chelsea. Brennan Lee Mulligan helms the story as Dungeon Master. “Titan Takedown” is a celebration of professional wrestling not just because of the players but because of the world that Mulligan crafted.

Mulligan is no stranger to molding a world to the genre, performers, and storytelling style. The quest to the underworld in “Dungeons & Drag Queens” first season was inspired by the death drop in “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Mulligan did this once again with “Titan Takedown.” He was inspired by professional wrestling with story beats, formatting, character creation, and character portrayal. For example, Zeus, aka “Big Z,” is an homage to Macho Man.

Interestingly, Mulligan also found that it was in line with the setting of Greek mythology itself. The Gods are worshipped and feared, and this is shown through the fans cheering for them as they do for the big names in the WWE. Weaving the worlds of Greek mythology together with professional wrestling makes it an easy jumping-in point for hardcore wrestling fans, “Dimension 20” fans, and even fans of Greek mythology. During a roundtable interview, Mulligan discussed how the season came together.

Dimension 20: Titan Takedown Marries Greek Mythology & Professional Wrestling

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“So the season came together very organically and sort of bubbled up. Obviously these four wrestlers have so many fans amongst the cast and crew of “Dimension 20,” amongst Dropout staff. And Austin [Xavier Woods] is just awesome to work with and had come on and done “Um Actually” before. He mentioned like, “Hey, I played D&D if you ever wanted to…” In terms of the sort of creative underpinning of Greek myth plus the sort of Zeus wearing mirror visor 1980s Sleazeball Greek myth.

What it felt like is we do a lot of pop culture mashups on “Dimension 20,” which is a really easy way because people that maybe don’t do a lot of live comedy performance still have an understanding of genre and tone. So you take something like ancient Greek myth, which does the kind of fantasy, tactical, tabletop combat thing, and then you just add in this element of, Greco Roman wrestling, we can kind of hinge on that over to Zeus as Macho Man.

You can kind of do that vibe and what it does is it creates a saddle for people that are sitting at a table rolling dice for the first time to have a familiarity of storytelling language. So Zeus comes out and goes, you’re not ready. We took down the Titans in ages long past, and then everybody gets to go, Oh, got it. I’m right in the pocket. I recognize the storytelling format.

Our fans are going to recognize the storytelling format, and yet the presence of fantastical tactical combat is right there as well. So it’s sort of like you’re just looking for, the term I use is hinge. It’s like a hinge on a door where these things that are perpendicular can close, and suddenly they’re parallel; they’re in alignment with each other.”

Watching a group of people sit around a table and play Dungeons & Dragons can seem a bit odd or daunting. However, “Dimension 20” is the perfect example of why this storytelling format has captured so many people’s imaginations. “Titan Takedown” is the perfect way to bring wrestling fans into the fold not only with WWE Superstars but also by incorporating professional wrestling elements into the show.

The action this season is more prominent by design. Part of this is because of the wrestling element both on and above the table. These players understand the physicality of performance through movement and bring that knowledge to their gameplay. This dynamic action with minis and sets is the perfect way to bring their kinesthetic storytelling to life.

Inspiration From Professional Wrestling With Sports Centaur

The world of “Titan Takedown” encapsulates what makes Greek mythology, Dungeons & Dragons, and professional wrestling so popular. Underdog heroes fighting against oppressive villains and exciting action. The crossover between these is not only obvious on screen but also behind the scenes with numerous folks at Dropout pitching in. Danielle Radford lent her knowledge of wrestling as a consultant. Meanwhile, others contributed in new ways with the introduction of “Sports Centaur.”

Ify Nwadiwe and Brian Murphy take on the roles of commentators within the world of “Titan Takedown.” They recap the wrestling match inspired by how professional wrestling announcers and commentators discuss the match and wrestlers. Mulligan shared what inspired “Sports Centaur” during the roundtable interview.

Brennan Lee Mulligan:

“It’s a great experiment. We’re really excited for fans to find it. It feels like the Easter eeg-ness of it and the fun; there were so many reasons that we wanted to do it. Number one, making ancillary content for this season where we have performers coming from another sphere of entertainment and coming to play with us at Dropout. We wanted to get a handle on how many fun bells and whistles we can put on this to celebrate this. And I think too, from the bottom of my heart, there are so many huge fans of these wrestlers at Dropout.

So getting Danielle Radford in the mix, getting Brian Murphy in the mix. There were so many people when the trailer first dropped; they’re like, where’s Brian Murphy? And I had to be like, if you think I don’t live in a tent outside Murph’s house, every morning I wake up and bang on his front door saying, Please, Murph, please, please come play with us. You’ve lost it. You’ve lost the thread.

People acting like I’m Heismaning Brian Murphy away. First of all, I’m Brian Murphy’s number one fan. You’re not Brian Murphy’s number one fan. So, having him be able to come in because the schedule is very hard, even with the schedule, I was like, do you want to just come by set and say hi? He’s just so, so busy.

Sports Centaur was a way to make something really fun for the fans and reward fans. Both “Dimension 20’s” long-term and people coming in new that are maybe following some of the wrestlers here, to create something that’s going to be very familiar but also really fun to hit them with Dropout’s vibe more broadly. And to let people I love get a hand on this awesome season to say thank you.

I was talking to Murph and Danielle a ton before the season to run ideas past them. Danielle worked on the season as an official consultant and made a whole lore document of wrestling to get this f*cking nerd up to speed as fast as possible. I wanted to celebrate their involvement in the project.”

This not only celebrates the format of professional wrestling; it also demonstrates what Dropout brings to the table. “Sports Centaur” is a taste of the humor, world-building, and players that are staples of not only “Dimension 20” but Dropout as a whole. This is a perfect example of how “Dimension 20” fully leans into the bit every time.

Dimension 20 Titan Takedown Is Perfect For New Fans

“Dimension 20” seems to be anticipating a potential influx of new viewers with WWE fans following their favorite wrestlers. The recent release of the “How To Watch Dimension 20” video featured Mulligan breaking down the different seasons, including some of the best to begin with. “Titan Takedown” has the potential to organically cross over fandoms similarly to “Dungeons & Drag Queens.”

This season plays into some of the most iconic elements of wrestling with bombastic characters, formatting inspiration like “Sports Centaur,” and of course the action sequences. The Righteous Wrestlers show off their character creation, collaboration, kinetic intelligence, improvisation, and understanding of storytelling in. Wrestling fans will not only see some of their favorite performers in the spotlight; they will also get a taste of why this storytelling style is so engaging.

The first episode of “Dimension 20: Titan Takedown” is available on Dropout now with new episodes on Wednesdays.