The all-new fantasy series from ‘The Legend of Vox Machina’s creators, adapted from their second campaign, follows a band of chaotic adventurers as they confront their troubled pasts and forge their destinies in a world of magic, mystery, and unexpected heroism; it hits Prime Video November 19.
The story is darker.The stakes are higher.
And it’s nine times the adventure… or perhaps we might say, “nein” times.“I did know going in that ’s episodes would be twice as long as ’s,” says Tasha Huo, executive producer and showrunner for the animated series adaptation of Critical Role’s second campaign, .“From their experience on , all the Critical Role cast knew they wanted to tell more story.
So much was left on the editing room floor with and they wanted to fix that issue with .There was also the detail that went into the character building in this campaign, too.It really leveled up.
So, when I came on, I was like, ‘Please, God, make these episodes 45 minutes.’” Luckily, Huo got her wish.’s scheduled eight episodes are roughly 45 minutes each; the all-new series follows a band of chaotic adventurers as they confront their troubled pasts and forge their destinies in a world of magic, mystery, and unexpected heroism. The group of misfits consist of Jester (Laura Bailey), a mischievous tiefling cleric; Beauregard "Beau" Lionett (Marisha Ray), an insecure monk from the Cobalt Soul; Mollymauk "Molly" Tealeaf (Taliesin Jaffe), a tiefling blood hunter and tarot card reader; Yasha Nydoorin (Ashley Johnson), an Aasimar barbarian and mercenary from the wastes of Xhorhas within the Kryn Dynasty; Caleb Widogast (Liam O'Brien), a scruffy wizard with fire-based magic and wanted for murder; Fjord Stone (Travis Willingham), an orphaned half-orc warlock and sailor; and Nott the Brave (Sam Riegel), an alcoholic goblin rogue.Drawn together by circumstance, the seven adventurers must work together to save the realm after a powerful arcane relic known as The Beacon falls into dangerous hands.
The first three episodes – produced by Titmouse, Critical Role and its founders, and Amazon MGM Studios – will release on Prime Video on Wednesday, November 19. Check out the trailer: “I’ve cried a lot working on this show, and I still cry watching the episodes,” says Huo, who presented the first episode of at SCAD AnimationFest last month and received ample shock and awe from panel attendees.“My husband will come into the room because he hears me crying, sees what I’m watching and goes, ‘Oh ok.You’re watching that episode again.’ There’s so much laughing and so much crying.
It’s a big roller coaster ride of a show.It’s great.” ’s art director Joseph Martinez () and the show’s character and layout supervisor Jess Lackey () both joined Huo on stage at AnimationFest during the presentation.While both Huo and Martinez had followed ’s campaign, Lackey was unfamiliar with the story until she was hired to work on the project. “I was quickly shocked by how much I liked it,” shares Lackey.
“And I was excited to take the script and Joseph’s worldbuilding and make sure all the characters felt like products of their environment.” Martinez adds, “ was a bit more high fantasy.’s world is more grounded and based on Eastern European history.We went for a more brutalist look, with architecture that over encumbers our characters.
You’ll see that the city is built with boulevards, traditionally used to move armies through cities.That set the tone and the atmosphere.It felt a little bit more industrial and a bit more dangerous.” Lackey also channeled her love of horror into her work with the characters who inhabit this brutal world. “There are certainly a lot of creatures in this show that are more scary than they are fun,” notes Lackey.
“But a lot of the actual horror elements that I really enjoy come through in the psychological effect that this world has on the characters.These characters are so uncomfortable with themselves and they're trying to make a life in this horrifying environment.And then on top of it, the actions the characters take have further psychological effects on themselves after they take that action.
I like exploring that discomfort and emphasizing how living with those actions affects characters’ interactions with each other, depending on whether certain characters were present for certain decisions or if they weren’t part of the choice.” The dynamics between the seven main characters of range from co-dependent and tortured to unrequited, familial and, at times, even vengeful.illustrated a comedic, endearing group of friends who knew how to poke fun at each other and weren’t afraid to make bold declarations of love.But explores outcasts bonded by isolation and trauma who could either be each other’s salvation or destruction. That said, it was very called-for to design characters capable of expressing nuanced, subtle emotional cues that spoke to much deeper feelings.
And with some characters possessing entirely red eyes, bandages covering their faces and thick war paint, it wasn’t always easy to pull off. “With Yasha’s character, who has all that black paint on her face, we had to make the lines around her eyes much thicker,” explains Lackey.“And with Nott, there's so much pain in her and the way she reacts had to be realistic, but it also had to be shown a lot through her eyes because her mouth is usually covered up.” Huo adds, “We also had to find unique ways to light scenes in this show because it is a dark story narratively and visually and I remember there were many scenes where I was like, ‘That’s so dark we can barely see what’s going on.We need to lighten it up.’ But then it’s like, ‘Wait.
There’s no light source, though.’ And then we’d have to rewrite the scene so we could have light come from somewhere.” Some of the most challenging scenes were when the story explores moments with the Kryn Dynasty, a group of people Martinez was excited to explore but scared to light.“It’s a location that’s basically all Twilight,” notes Martinez.“I was like, ‘How do we even light that?’ It really comes down to finding the best ways to light the characters and making sure they’re in the best light to tell the story.
We have scenes where it’s a very pinned spotlight on Caleb as he sits in the dark.That’s not just us lighting him like that.We’re communicating something about what’s going on with him.
Caleb is not a guy with a big range of expression, so we do subtle things to get the message across.” Martinez says they also used a lot of color cues to try to communicate to audiences what unspoken political tensions were hidden under the surface of the story that also weigh on the characters and their state of mind. “We reserved blues and purples for royalty and more grounded civilians dressed in more earthy tones,” notes Martinez.“We had a limited pallet compared to but we definitely explored ways to make it look fun and interesting.” “Fun” was still a core value of the show, despite its gritty and grounded nature.After all, what’s a Critical Role campaign adaptation without laughs? “Every character is still funny in their own way,” says Huo.
“So, it wasn't hard to find moments where any of them could provide some levity.But with music, if it's just constantly blaring, it sort of loses what makes it interesting.And it’s the same with writing.
You may still be thinking about certain low points in the show, but we will find moments to bring you out of it.None of us want to live in those icky feelings.And there are a lot of icky feelings in this story.
We do a lot of ups and downs to give the audience a break.” As much as Huo and her team aimed to pack everything they could into each episode, there were, inevitably, things that didn’t make the cut.But that’s what Easter Eggs are for. “If something didn't make it into the show from the campaign, we tried really hard to put it somewhere in a scene,” says Huo.“So, for those who are fans, there's an added layer to the show if you freeze frames in certain places.” Martinez teases, “Definitely look in the shadows and keep an eye out for things that might be peeking around a corner.” Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime.
She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment.Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
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