The cast of ‘The Mighty Nein,’ Critical Role’s next animated series. Photo:
Prime Video
Critters everywhere can once again enter the fantasy world of Exandria this fall with the arrival of The Mighty Nein. Announced today during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Critical Role’s second animated series will begin streaming Nov. 19 on Prime Video. Members of the cast and media company that comprise Critical Role took the stage to reveal the show’s upcoming release date with a first-ever look at the series by way of a short clip that showcases many (but not all) of its tabletop fantasy-based characters.
You can see the full clip below.
The video jumps en media res into the story, with a handful of the show’s main characters under interrogation by an unknown authority. Although they’re not explicitly introduced, fans will quickly recognize the group as human wizard Caleb Widogast (Liam O’Brien), half-orc warlock Fjord Stone (Travis Willingham), human monk Beauregard Lionett (Marisha Ray), half-demon humanoid cleric Jester Lavorre (Laura Bailey), goblin rogue Nott the Brave (Sam Riegel), and horned blood hunter Mollymauk Tealeaf (Taliesin Jaffe) — all reprising their roles from the original actual play campaign. Critical Role Chief Creative Officer and resident Dungeon Master, Matthew Mercer, also appears off-screen as the voice of the interrogating guard.
Not shown in the clip is aasimar barbarian Yasha Nydoorin, voiced by Ashley Johnson, whose character is confirmed to appear but may not be involved in the trouble at hand. Alongside the core Critical Role cast who developed these characters during their livestreamed gameplay sessions, multiple guests stars have been announced for the show’s first season, including Mark Strong (Nine Perfect Strangers), Alan Cumming (The Traitors), Anika Noni Rose (Princess and the Frog), Ming-Na Wen (The Mandalorian), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Rahul Kohli (iZombie), Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), and singer Tim McGraw.
Also rejoining the group is voice actor Robbie Daymond, a newer member of the Critical Role community who’s played a major role in recent livestreams and stage shows.
Initially announced back in 2023, The Mighty Nein is the second animated series from Critical Role and Prime Video. The first, The Legend of Vox Machina, adapted the group’s first major actual play campaign that originally aired live on Twitch, and has already run for three seasons on Amazon Prime, with a fourth expected next year. Like its predecessor, The Mighty Nein translates the improvised story beats and dialogue from the group’s live hundreds-hour-long play sessions (in this case, Campaign Two, which ran from 2018 to 2021) into a more streamlined version of the narrative that can employ more traditional storytelling.
Like the stories that inspired them, the Critical Role animated series are connected, sharing the same fictional universe, continuity, and characters — although the cast primarily create new avatars and identities for each campaign. The Mighty Nein takes place some time after the still-unseen ending of The Legend of Vox Machina, although both series will now be airing in tandem.
News of the show has been scarce since its initial announcement, but fans of Critical Role have been clamoring for more of their favorite “nerdy ass voice actors,” whose most recent Dungeons & Dragons campaign came to its conclusion in February. Since then, the Critical Role cast has been very busy, hitting the road for a string of live shows as well as launching a new mini-series of actual play called Age of Umbra, utilizing their own tabletop platform Daggerheart rather than D&D.
Just this week, Critical Role officially confirmed that they’ve begun developing their first video game with partners AdHoc Studios, a project they’ve been teasing for years.
The Mighty Nein marks the next chapter in the ever-expanding lore of Critical Role, who celebrate their 10-year anniversary this year. Having helped revolutionize Dungeons & Dragons for a new generation of fans, many now fear that the group will abandon the familiar tabletop platform for their own proprietary one, or worse, stop telling stories within the Exandria world. While the future of their actual play stories is unclear, this new show aims to provide a fresh twist on the existing narrative that is sure to comfort and surprise diehard fans in equal measure.
From Rolling Stone US.
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