The Legend of Vox Machina

The Legend of Vox Machina is an animated series adapting the Vox Machina campaign funded via Kickstarter. It is produced by Critical Role Productions, Titmouse Inc., and Amazon Studios and released through Prime Video. The series will span three seasons of twelve episodes for the first and the second season. The first season ran from January 28, 2022 through February 18, 2022, and the second season began airing January 20, 2023.

The main cast of Critical Role reprise their roles as their player characters, and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer reprises his role as multiple non-player characters, most notably Sylas Briarwood and Trinket. The first season begins with Vox Machina facing Brimscythe, before adapting the Briarwoods arc. The second season then goes on to adapt the Chroma Conclave arc, which continues into the third season.

The series is considered its own canon with a continuity separate and distinct from the core canon of the Critical Role streamed campaign and related canonical works.

Episodes
The first season of The Legend of Vox Machina spans twelve episodes, released in batches of three episodes over four weeks. The season begins with a two-part episode covering Vox Machina's pre-stream slaying of Brimscythe, then adapts their confrontation with Delilah and Sylas Briarwood in Whitestone during the second arc of Campaign 1.

The currently airing second season, which covers part of the third arc of the campaign with the Chroma Conclave, likewise has twelve episodes and is being released in batches of three episodes over four weeks.

The series will have a third season.

Main cast

 * Laura Bailey as Vex'ahlia
 * Taliesin Jaffe as Percival de Rolo, Lord De Rolo
 * Ashley Johnson as Pike Trickfoot
 * Matthew Mercer as Sylas Briarwood, Trinket, Hotis, The Whispered One, Orthax, and additional voices
 * Liam O'Brien as Vax'ildan, Vorugal
 * Marisha Ray as Keyleth of the Air Ashari
 * Sam Riegel as Scanlan Shorthalt
 * Travis Willingham as Grog Strongjaw

Recurring guest cast

 * Stephanie Beatriz as Lady Kima of Vord
 * Anjali Bhimani as Head Cleric of Sarenrae
 *  as Jarett Howarth
 *  as Cassandra de Rolo
 * Darin De Paul as Kerrion Stonefell
 * Grey Griffin as Delilah Briarwood, Lady De Rolo
 *  as Dr. Anna Ripley
 * Sunil Malhotra as Shaun Gilmore
 *  as Duke Vedmire
 *  as Archibald Desnay
 * Khary Payton as Sovereign Uriel Tal'Dorei
 *  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 (season one), staff writer (season two)

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

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: 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 partnered on the project to be seen exclusively on 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.

At a New York Comic Con panel held on October 6, 2022, Critical Role announced that season two would be set to air in January 2023 and that the series was greenlit for a third season.

Writing and recording
The writing team often ordered events differently than in Campaign 1 because they felt that a different order was more interesting, connected better to a future event, or ensured the show "stays fresh". Some events not adapted in season one were not necessarily removed entirely but moved further down the timeline.

Initial vocal recording for combat scenes were built out of a library of sounds (grunts, groans, other exertions, etc.) recorded by each actor after their main sessions, as is standard practice. Once final versions of the combat scenes were animated, the cast re-recorded the scenes in real time to make the vocals specific to the action and "more nuanced", a choice that Sam characterized as particularly meticulous. He said, "Every fight scene in every episode is all unique to that episode, and we never repeat a single fight sound in any of them."

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.

Watch Parties
Critical Role hosted livestreamed watch parties in which Mica Burton and guests from the cast or crew of The Legend of Vox Machina watch the three most recently released episodes of the series and answer questions taken from the live Twitch chat. These streams use Twitch's Watch Party feature and are scheduled for each Tuesday at 7:00pm PT after episodes release. The question and answer portions, without commentary made during each episode, are collected and posted to YouTube the following Wednesday at 3pm PT.

Watch Parties returned for season two, again hosted by Mica.

Soundtrack
Lakeshore Records released The Legend of Vox Machina—Amazon Original Series Soundtrack digitally on January 28, 2022. The orchestral score by Neal Acree is performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra and features soloists Tina Guo (electric and acoustic fiddle), Paul Cartwright (fiddle), Krising Naigus (winds), and Eric Rigler (bagpipes). The album also features original songs by Sam Riegel (as Scanlan Shorthalt) and Peter Habib of Mr. Fantastic.

Comics
A prequel graphic novel series, The Legend of Vox Machina: Whitestone Chronicles, will be published by Dark Horse Comics. Ripley will release as the first installment in 2024.

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.
 * 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 each main character specific instruments and genre influences. Grog's is heavy metal; Keyleth and Pike's are flute and choir; Percy's is classical/operatic; Vex and Vax's are strings and classical waltz. Scanlan, being a bard, sings original songs with several handheld string instruments in a variety of contemporary genres (which is more the doing of Peter Habib).
 * 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.
 * As a surprise for Matt, the design team intentionally designed a character model that looked like him. Several characters with his likeness have appeared in a minor role in every episode so far and are all voiced by Matt.