Disclaimer: I was provided with travel and accommodations by Disney/Marvel to attend this interview in L.A. All thoughts and opinions stated herein are my own unless otherwise noted.
Last month I joined twenty-four bloggers for an exclusive look at the new Disney XD show, Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything. The show features Cameron Boyce and three Disney newcomers: Murray Wyatt Rundus, Felix Avitia, and Sophie Reynolds.
We had the wonderful opportunity to sit in with them and witness a “run through” of an episode. This gave us an idea of what the show was about, and how it will progress from the pilot. (At the time of our meeting, they were already in their ninth week of filming.) While I can’t tell you anything about the episode we watched, I can tell you that Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything is funny. The show tackles gaming and real-life challenges in a humorous and entertaining way. It was a lot of fun to see them in action.
(Note: I will tell you more about the run-through episode I watched in the coming months. Check back with me in the fall when I am permitted to give you details.)
What is Gamer’s Guide to Pretty Much Everything really about?
While gaming is a great aspect of the show, really it is about the kids. The writing team works hard to make sure that all of the gaming information is accurate and real – but the main focus of the show is the interactions between the characters, school, life, and their friendship.
(Photo below was taken inside “Conner’s” basement)
Meet Conner
Cameron Boyce plays Conner. Conner is the main character of the show who used to be a professional gamer. During the first episode (which airs on July 22nd) Conner has an accident and can’t continue gaming professionally. This accident causes a wave of problems for him that result in having to go to public school for the first time.
Cameron Boyce tells us more about the show’s foundation:
[Conner] was home schooled, and other stuff, do his gaming. So, his mom tells him “you’re going to go to regular school.” I don’t really know how to be a regular kid, so he goes and makes some friends — but he tries to use them at first to get back on the tour where he thinks he belongs. Eventually he realizes that he kind of likes having these guys around. Instead of going on the solo gaming tour, he chooses to keep these guys around and go on the team tour, with these guys.
Meet Ashley
Sophie Reynolds plays Ashley who befriends the guys. Her character is goodhearted, sweet, caring, (maybe even gullible) person. Ashley isn’t a book smart student at school but she is a super smart gamer – Sophie told us gaming is Ashley’s “strength.”
Meet Wendell
Murray Wyatt Rundus plays Wendell on the show. He told us that his character is arrogant and believes everyone around him is clueless. Wendell believes himself to be the mastermind of everything they encounter – but I have a feeling viewers will see that everything they do together is a team effort and none of them are running the show.
Meet Franklin
Felix Avitia character is Franklin on the show Franklin is book smart, full of common sense, positive and outgoing – he wants to fit in and wants to be a part of the group. The struggle for Franklin is that, while he is super smart, he isn’t the best at gaming.
What was most interesting about Felix is that he is a good gamer in real life. Actually, he is the only one who truly considered himself “a gamer” before the show.
I love to play games on console, console games which is like PS3, PS4, Xbox’s, but, ah, PC gamer, right, but, ah, I love the advanced warfare like Call of Duty’s. I love the FPS’s, which are first person shooters. I also love racing games and sports too — I can, pretty much, play everything and anything ~ Felix Avitia
After seeing the show, meeting the cast, and visiting on set, I’m excited to share this show with my kids. I have two boys who are self proclaimed “gamers”, and we used to coordinate a gamer’s club in our home with their homeschool peers; I know my bunch will love this new show!
My tween daughter is bummed to see Cameron Boyce isn’t going onward to Bunk’d with some of the other Jessie cast, but Cameron reassures us that this new “family” {meaning, the acting team} is “just as great, if not better” than the one he left behind.
I’m adjusting and it’s cool because the people on Jessie were really cool people. When I heard about this, I was really excited about it, but I was thinking wow, I’m really going to miss those really great people on Jessie. And then I come here and they’re just as great, if not better. I mean, we have such a tight group and it’s been 9 weeks. So, it’s really weird to kind of go from a family to another family, but instantly feel like family at your second family– if that makes sense.
