The Legend of Vox Machina

 is an animated series adapting the Vox Machina campaign funded via Kickstarter. It is animated by Titmouse and released through Amazon Prime Video. The series will span two season of twelve episodes each. The series premiered on January 28, 2022, and the first season is releasing weekly in batches of three episodes and will air its season finale on February 18, 2022.

The first season begins with Vox Machina facing Brimscythe, before adapting the Briarwoods arc and other story arcs first depicted during the stream. The main cast of Critical Role reprise their roles as their player characters, and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer reprises his role as some non-player characters, most notably Sylas Briarwood and Trinket.

Crowdfunding
Members of the cast attempted to pitch the series to a few production companies, but were unsuccessful. They decided to try a crowdfunding campaign and reached out to animation studio Titmouse, Inc. to create a teaser trailer. The Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter was launched on March 4th, 2019, lasting for 45 days (ending on April 18th, 2019 at 11:59 pm). The original goal was to create a 22 minute long animated special. Within the first 45 minutes of the Kickstarter going up, the $750,000 goal was surpassed, and $1,000,000 was hit in the first hour. After the first day, $3.0 million was raised, passing all the stretch goals the team had planned. Within the next few days, The Legend of Vox Machina became the most funded film/animation project across Kickstarter. It eventually raised $11,385,449, becoming the 5th most funded project on Kickstarter at the time with 88,887 backers.

To celebrate the close of the Kickstarter campaign and to thank Critters for their love and support the cast was joined by special guest Joel Hodgson of Mystery Science Theater 3000 for the Kickstarter Campaign End Party.

Stretch goals and rewards

 * 1 Million
 * Free digital download of the special's soundtrack for $20+ Backers.
 * One-shot: The Search For Bob.
 * 1.5 Million
 * 22 addition minutes to the animated special.
 * Backers at the $100+ will get an exclusive crew knitted Legend of Vox Machina beanie.
 * 2 Million
 * Backers at the $20+ will get a voicemail pack voiced by the cast.
 * One-shot: Vox Machina's Summer Reunion in Dalen's Closet.
 * 2.5 Million
 * 22 addition minutes to the animated special.
 * Backers at the $100+ will get an exclusive Legend of Vox Machina d20 with their dice sets.
 * 3 Million
 * 22 addition minutes to the animated special.
 * Backers at the $200+ will get an exclusive Dagger Dagger Dagger letter opener set.
 * One-shot: Vox Machina x Mighty Nein.
 * 5.75 Million
 * The start of the Briarwoods Arc (2 episodes, 44 minutes of animation)
 * 7.5 Million
 * Continuation of the Briarwoods Arc (2 episodes, 44 minutes of animation)
 * One-shot: Vox Machina Guest Battle Royale
 * 8.8 Million
 * The Conclusion of the Briarwoods Arc (2 episodes, 44 minutes of animation)
 * Ashley Johnson will GM a one-shot.
 * 10 Million (secret goal)
 * Travis Willingham will go on a filmed journey through a haunted house.

Production History
In November 2019, Amazon Prime partnered on the project to be seen exclusively on Amazon Prime Video and expanding it to two seasons totaling 24 episodes.

In June 2020, Critical Role announced that the launch of the series would be delayed from the originally projected Fall 2020 date to an unspecified date in Summer to Fall 2021. At a panel at New York City Comic-Con, the release date was announced to be February 4, 2022. The premiere date was later moved up to January 28, 2022. Kickstarter backers received early access to the first two episodes via private showings beginning January 25, 2022.

In a Kickstarter update, it was revealed that the first two episodes of the series would follow a new adventure within the canon of Vox Machina, falling in the timeline before Kraghammer and that the following episodes would complete the Briarwoods arc and move "into other classic Vox Machina story arcs as well." However, the series instead ended up starting in Emon, with the storyline of Brimscythe. During a Q&A, art director Arthur Loftis mentioned that the series would consist of 10 episodes; however, this was later changed to two seasons of twelve episodes each.

The official description for the New York Comic Con panel of The Legend of Vox Machina described the series as "an animated fantasy-adventure series for adults that follows Vox Machina, a band of misfits with a fondness for boozing and brawling. In a desperate attempt to pay off their mounting bar tab, these unlikely heroes end up on a quest to save the realm of Exandria from dark magical forces. From a sinister necromancer to a powerful curse, the group confronts a variety of obstacles that not only test their skills, but also the strength of their bond."

Though the series was announced to be premiered at midnight PST on January 28, 2022, it released eight hours early at midnight UTC (or GMT) instead.

Pre-release specials
In the time between the announcement of the Kickstarter and the series' release, several sneak peek videos were posted on Critical Role's YouTube channel. For the full list, see The Legend of Vox Machina Pre-release Specials.

Credits

 *      - President and founder of Titmouse, executive producer
 * Antonio Cannobio   - Senior vice president and chief creative officer of Titmouse
 * Brandon Auman     - Executive producer and showrunner
 * Laura Bailey- Executive producer
 * Taliesin Jaffe - Executive producer
 * Ashley Johnson - Executive producer
 * Ben Kalina        - Executive producer
 * Matthew Mercer - Executive producer
 * Liam O'Brien - Executive producer
 * Shannon Prynoski  - Execuive producer
 * Marisha Ray - Executive producer
 * Sam Riegel - Executive producer
 * Travis Willingham - Executive producer
 * Sung Jin Ahn       - Supervising director
 * Mary Elizabeth McGlynn - Voice director
 * Young Heller       - Episodic director
 * Alicia Chan        - Episodic director
 * Rebecca Ung        - Production coordinator
 * Elizabeth Schantz  - Writer's room production assistant

Cast

 * Laura Bailey as Vex'ahlia
 * Taliesin Jaffe as Percival de Rolo
 * Ashley Johnson as Pike Trickfoot
 * Matthew Mercer as Sylas Briarwood and additional voices
 * Liam O'Brien as Vax'ildan
 * Marisha Ray as Keyleth of the Air Ashari
 * Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Travis Willingham as Grog Strongjaw
 * Stephanie Beatriz as Lady Kima of Vord
 * Anjali Bhimani as Head Cleric
 *  as Jarett Howarth
 *  as Cassandra de Rolo
 * Felicia Day as Captain of Emon
 * Darin De Paul as Kerrion Stonefell
 * Grey Griffin as Delilah Briarwood
 * Tony Hale as Sir Gregory Fince
 * Bobby Hall, aka , as Palace Guard
 *  as Dr. Anna Ripley
 * Sunil Malhotra as Shaun Gilmore
 *  as Duke Vedmire
 *  as Desmond Otham
 *  as Archibald Desnay
 * Khary Payton as Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei
 * Mason Alexander Park as the Tavern Keeper
 * Stacey Raymond as Bryn
 *  as Professor Anders
 * David Tennant as General Krieg
 *  as the Everlight
 *  as Keeper Yennen
 * Indira Varma as Lady Allura Vysoren

Art

 * Arthur Loftis      - Art director
 * Phil Bourassa      - Lead character designer
 * Karen Guo          - Storyboard artist
 * Cassey Kuo         - Storyboard artist
 * Marvin Britt       - Storyboard revisionist
 * Joseph Martinez    - Background designer
 * Victoria Thornberry - Color design
 * Nick Lombardo      - Character designer
 * Luke Ashworth      - Character designer
 * Bertrand Todesco   - Character designer

Script

 * Eugene Son - Story editor
 * Brandon Auman - Writer
 * Ashly Burch - Writer
 * Jennifer Muro - Writer
 *  - Writer
 *  - Writer
 * Kevin Burke - Writer
 *  - Writer
 * Mae Catt - Writer
 * Meredith Kecskemety - Writer’s assistant

Music

 *  - Composer
 * Peter Habib - Songwriter
 * Sam Riegel - Songwriter
 * Nolan Markey - Orchestrator
 * Mike Bouska - Mixing
 * Budapest Scoring Orchestra - Orchestral score
 * Tina Guo - Electric cello
 * Paul Cartwright - Fiddle
 * Kristin Naigus - Woodwinds
 * Eric Rigler - Bagpipes

Trivia

 * The name of the series is likely a callback to, a special episode summarizing Vox Machina's adventures before the start of the stream. This special also featured animation, done by Wendy Sullivan Green.
 * Only one of the stretch goal specials has not aired as of yet, the Vox Machina Guest Battle Royale. It is set to air on January 27th 2022.
 * A few elements from the series were hinted at in Crew & A Episode 4.
 * Greyskull Keep was described by a crew member as an "early location" that they got to explore, where "Vox Machina get to live in and start off their journey".
 * Crew members mentioned a spell used by Scanlan to conjure up different body parts, alluding to their creative take on the spell Bigby's Hand. It was also said that Scanlan uses his lute to cast spells. Other spells that were mentioned included Keyleth's vines.
 * The series' composer, Neal Acree, assigned certain instruments or music genres to each of the main characters. Grog's is heavy metal; Keyleth and Pike's are flute and choir; Percy's is classical opera; Vex and Vax's are strings and classical waltz. Scanlan, being a bard, sings original songs, with lute and heavy metal being mentioned.
 * The heights of several characters appear to have been modified for this series. In the past, Keyleth has been described as being 6 feet tall, which is taller than the twins' 5'11" and 5'9"; however, in the official character lineup, she is shorter than both of them. Grog appears to have been scaled down, as he was initially described as an 8'7" half-giant but seems closer in height to the others in this version.