In one week’s time, The Legend of Vox Machina will make its premiere on Prime Video. It’s almost unreal to think about. What started as a small stream on the Geek and Sundry Twitch channel in 2015 has grown into a dedicated Twitch channel, sold-out live shows to hundreds of Critters, two additional campaigns, a charity group (Critical Role Foundation), a production company, multiple comic book series, a novel, and now a full-fledged animated series. The Legend of Vox Machina will take viewers through the adventures of the campaign one by Critical Role. While serving as the primary voice-over cast, the members of Critical Role (Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien), and Matthew Mercer) also serve as producers of The Legend of Vox Machina. As a Critter myself, I was very excited for the chance to pick the brains of the cast members to see how they were feeling about this incredible milestone in a lengthy resume of accomplishments for the group. I was able to sit down with Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, and Marisha Ray to do just that.
What was only supposed to be a one-time animated special based on the group’s first campaign quickly evolved into a two-season run on Prime Video after a massive $11.3 million Kickstarter campaign. This is the kind of growth that I am not sure anyone on the Critical Role crew thought was possible all those years ago. But, with fandom all things are possible!
In the end, the members of Critical Role still are just those friends who sat around and play dungeons and dragons. They have been able to turn that passion into what we see today and it’s beautiful. With over 373 hours of gameplay time on stream, there is no shortage of content for this talented group of voice actors to pull from. Their love for this project shines in only the short time I was able to speak with them. Their dedication to putting forth a product that longtime Critters and new fans can engage with is evident in the first episode alone.
The Legend of Vox Machina is adult animation that I have been this excited to consume since Invincible. There will be three episodes released at a time which makes the arcs and storylines easy to follow so far. I will be covering the show weekly but if you want to hear more about The Legend of Vox Machina then I hope you enjoy this brief interview with Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, and Marisha Ray!
The Legend of Vox Machina will premiere on Prime Video on January 28, 2022!