13 “The Legend Of Vox Machina” Season 3 Behind-The-Scenes Facts Straight From The “Critical Role” Cast
1. First, with The Legend of Vox Machina, you’re all tasked with whittling down hundreds of hours of gameplay from Campaign 1 into 12-episode seasons. Has it gotten easier or more challenging as we’ve gotten to the heart of the campaign?
Matthew Mercer: It’s gotten both easier and harder from my standpoint. Easier because I’ve gotten used to whittling these moments off that were my babies once and just getting more used to the adaptation process, but also harder because as it goes on, we’re also just precious about the things that are important and the story just gets grander and epic, and it’s wanting to do it justice, but it’s been a really fulfilling experience.
Sam Riegel: Similarly, it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier. In the grand scheme of things, we’re better at it because we’ve done it more. But like you said, this is the heart of the campaign, and we’re getting into the good stuff, so leaving anything out is heartbreaking for us. Luckily, we have 12 episodes per season, and that’s a good amount of time to really delve in and get some really great character moments, some amazing epic fights, and have a few minutes left over for some surprises and twists that fans of the campaign won’t expect.
Travis Willingham: I think we’ve started to refine the process a little bit. We were finding sort of the sweet spot in Seasons 1 and 2. But everything that happens every week in our current campaign, which is Campaign 3. Bells Hells. It’s decades after the characters of Vox Machina. There are things that even happen week to week that reverberate backward and change how we approach certain things. So we could be well into writing scripts or boards or even final animation coming back, and we will take every opportunity to tweak and change things if we think it will set up the story in a juicier way.
So we’re constantly iterating on things. We’re always coming back and trying to find ways to sweeten it. But I think at this point, we’ve set most of the series, and at least this and Mighty Nein, up for a fair bit of success. And I think it’s also going to be delivered in a way that can delight fans that know Vox Machina really well. We’ve got some things in there that are going to throw them for a curve and hopefully keep them guessing because that’s how we would want it.
2. Matt, from your perspective as the DM, how has it been making sure all the major plot points are hit in the animated series while also keeping some of the side stories that fans from Campaign 1 love, too?
MM: It’s little moments of side levity and even just a moment that isn’t driving the plot forward that helps bring the world to life a little more to make the stakes have that much more of an impact. Like, if the story is always driving the plot every single moment, and there isn’t a moment to breathe in that necessary space, it feels like you’re serving the story more than you’re serving the world and the greater place where the story exists. So keeping those moments, I think, is actually really important to the charm of what makes the show work.
3. Zerxus Illerez makes a surprise appearance, and we get to see flashes of EXU: Calamity. What went into us getting to see Calamity in this series? And how was it working with Luis Carazo for the animated show?
MM: Because we get to go back and do these adaptations, we have the hindsight of the greater Exandria that we’ve developed and explored since. And wherever we can, where it feels right, that we can weave in these other campaigns and stories, it’s an exciting opportunity. And as we were developing the idea for this episode, we were kind of folding in some of Hell and the Fire Plane stuff from the main campaign and adapting it all into one experience, and when the idea of bringing Zerxus in came up, I want to say it was either Sam or Travis—
Laura Bailey: It happened in, like, real-time because Calamity was happening while this season was being written.
SR: And that happens way more than you would expect. While we’re writing a season or an episode, something will happen in real-time, like we’ll do Calamity or something happens in Campaign 3 that changes how we approach an episode from the Vox Machina campaign.
That episode with Zerxus in it went through LOTS of iterations. One of the versions of it, we met Thordak in Hell. One version was just between Vox Machina and Yenk. And then Calamity was going on, and we were like, This is so cool. What a cool character. What if we cross the streams and make it happen?! And we did and it worked out so cool.
MM: Luis did a fantastic job, too. Just makes me want to adapt Calamity into animation that much more.
Marisha Ray: Everything down to the stained glass motifs that we had. Getting that in animated form was insane because that was just a bunch of stuff me and the producers whipped up.
SR: The card game in Hell was super challenging. It’s very hard to make a card game in animation interesting, but I think that’s the episode that we’re all sort of most proud of, at least on the writing side this year.
4. Ashley, Pike ultimately wins the vestige from Zerxus while Vox Machina is in hell. How was it portraying that storyline and having Pike face off with Zerxus?
Ashley Johnson: It was so cool. I mean, being able to be a part of that moment and being the one to sort of work across with Zerxus was awesome. I loved that whole sequence of that’s how we ended up getting that vestige. I mean, I loved in game how we ended up getting the vestige, too, but this seemed like such a bump in intensity, and the stakes were higher. I love sprinkling in the moments from the Calamity, and it’s just history that we get to pump into the show for fans that have watched any of the campaigns. I love that I got to be there for that moment.
TW: One of the brilliant things about Critical Role is you can take the brilliance of Brennan Lee Mulligan coming in for EXU: Calamity and everything that he set up there, and then look at that and say, Can we reverse engineer some of that into elements of the story that might have been more mechanic focused for a tabletop RPG game, and just work it back narratively? And I think, if we’re lucky enough to get future seasons, the thing that we’re teeing up with Pike and why she’s so integral, not just to Zerxus, but to where that story might be leading, there’s a payoff coming. So, we hope we get the opportunity to see it through to its full execution.
5. Laura, the iconic Vex, Percy, and Vax bathtub moment from Campaign 1 was included in this season. How fun was it to make sure that great piece of improv was featured here?
LB: I mean, Liam [O’Brien] wrote that episode, which was especially hilarious.
MM: I think when we were talking about moments that had to be in the season, that was the first one on the board. We were like, “Bathtub scene has to stay. That cannot NOT be part of this.”
LB: “Answer the door completely naked.” That also had to stay.
SR: We did have many meetings about how to shoot Vex, so she looked hot, super hot, and super sexy—
LB: That’s my rule.
SR: But so that we couldn’t see the…bits. Ya know?
Taliesin Jaffe: I’m so excited for people who don’t know the campaign to experience that same moment of Laura Bailey being the funniest human being on God’s green earth.
6. Marisha and Liam, you got to write episodes for Season 3. How was it being in the writers’ room and crafting some memorable moments for this season?
Liam O’Brien: I found out that I would be the writer of the moment where Vex popped out of the bathtub.
AJ: Oh, that’s right!
LO: I went full Arkham Asylum villain and laughed to the ends of the universe. And I hope I did it justice. I believe I did. I was very happy.
MR: I remember when I got assigned Episode 3×07 and that I was going to be writing it. I was in the writers’ room, and I remember thinking before they assigned it to me, I would love to write any of them, except for Episode 3×07, because it’s two geniuses. Two geniuses between Ripley and Percy talking to each other, and then they went, “You’re going to be writing the back half of this.” And, honestly, at the end of the day, I was thrilled because my grubby little fingerprints are on the big, epic moment of Percy dying.
LO: I just had to do naughty hijinks in the chateau.
7. Laura and Taliesin, how is it getting to revisit Vex and Percy’s early relationship again? Not only do we have some big heartwarming moments, but also grief and loss.
LB: You know, in the animated series we really [laughs] extended their trauma more so than it was in the campaign. It’s funny to be showing both of them in Vox Machina while also seeing them in Campaign 3 and living those moments at the same time.
TJ: It feels like a high school reunion or a college reunion at that point of just the inevitable maturity of these characters. The beginning of that relationship is so…I loved every moment of it.
LB: They’re so beautiful, and they’re so in love. It’s so great. Everyone’s dumb when they’re first starting out.
8. Percy’s death is obviously a huge part of this season. And unlike what happened in the campaign, Percy doesn’t come back immediately and we have to sit with his death for a few episodes. How was it including that change and that big moment overall?
TJ: I feel it’s necessary to say that Sam is a monster. Sam is bloodthirsty.
SR: I do try to kill people a lot.
TJ: I cannot think of a single meeting we’ve had where he hasn’t had, like, a little list of just, “Can I kill just one?” Sam called me and asked me how I felt about that. He was like, “How would you feel about doing this? And if you say no, then we’re not going to do it.” I thought about what we did with Vax earlier on and the expectation now of a D&D campaign that death is squishier than it should be. Especially with the cut to the next episode, and just what that would do to expectations. It was so delicious. I really, really enjoyed seeing what would have happened because I was on the edge in the campaign of just noping out. And it’s so fascinating to see what Percy’s death does to the relationships. It was a wonderful decision.
TW: For us, it was a big choice. I am particularly interested when 3×08 plays and it opens up, and we’re in a funeral procession. We’re not revivifying him or bringing him back immediately. We expect to see revolt, gnashing of teeth, and tearing of clothes, dogs and cats living together in mass hysteria. That’s what we’re going for.
LB: It was horrible and wonderful at the same time to really make our characters sit in the regret of what was and wasn’t said and getting to see Vax in that grief. We got it in the campaign, but it was so finite in that moment. And it was more of, “Oh gosh! Is Taliesin going to come back?! Are we going to be able to get him back to the table?” So, to see this moment in the show and just have her sit in that and get to go off with Vax and try to make things right through her actions, but it’s impossible to do. It was really beautiful.
And it’s funny because, in our resurrection scenes and everything, we still got to keep, “I should’ve told you. It’s yours,” and we almost didn’t because in the prior season, that moment with Saundor in the heart tree, it was almost written out, her saying, “My heart is someone else’s.” I was so hard about it with Travis going, “That line has to stay! ‘My heart is someone else’s.’ It has to stay because I want the ‘I should have told you it’s yours’ in the future season.”
9. Marisha and Liam, we’ve finally hit Vax and Keyleth admitting their feelings for each other in Season 3. How has it been exploring their relationship again, while both have also become such important parts of the current Campaign 3?
MR: That’s a great question. All the stuff going on with present-day campaign is wild because it’s kind of like you’re witnessing it almost through this weird lens. It’s an out-of-body experience watching Matt portray Keyleth as an NPC. Every time he says something, or she has a little scowl, you just see that she’s just pissed off about everything that happened with her and where Vax is now and that she got the short end of the stick on that entire situation. Then, watching, at the same time, it being set up and all of the bricks being laid into place in the animated show. It’s surreal, to say the least.
LO: Everything that we did as Vax and Keyleth together at the table into this show, but especially at the table, just left a mark on us. And it’s how Marisha became one of my best friends in all the world. So, getting to see them continue to be fixtures in the story — marble aside — it’s just incredible.
MR: [laughing] “Marble aside.” There is a heartbreaking element to it because when we’re recording it and we’re going through these motions, you just…we know where it’s going. And then it doesn’t end great. So there’s a little haze of just tragedy around the whole thing.
10. Do you have a favorite Easter egg or detail that’s hidden in Season 3?
TW: Marisha said in one of our earlier interviews that there is no frame wasted in this show. So when there are shelves, when there’s a background, and you see little items, it is guaranteed to be at least some sort of an Easter egg from all campaigns. So, if you are completely unfamiliar with Vox Machina and just coming in as a Mighty Nein fan, if you’re currently watching Bells Hells, there’s a little bit of that DNA in every single episode. You just have to keep your eyes peeled for it.
AJ: Part of our text thread, I feel like we have a lot of like, “Hey, here’s a background. What should we put on these shelves? Let’s put something in there from the bag of holding from Campaign 2 or Campaign 3, or throw something in there.” And I love it.
TW: We had Shubad’s Sundries in Marquet, and when we got in there, on the shelf, there’s a little birdhouse that says, “Pock O’Pea.” There’s a Nightmare King mask. There’s all sorts of good stuff. A little Taste of Tal’Dorei mug. We’re serving up goodies.
LB: I love the Ruby of the Sea song being in it!
SR: We get to hear Matt sing. What could be better?
MM: I mean, Spice Guy was hilarious. When we recorded it, we didn’t know what he was going to look like. And, like the animation team likes to do, we’ll go and do art approval passes, and all of a sudden, it’s my face for the character again, and I’m like, “God damn it! Yeah, that’s really funny. Okay.”
TJ: The Spice Matt is just the best Matt. Actually, I was not expecting spice to even show up at all in the series. I thought that was going to get left in the bin.
SR: It was almost. When we watched the first animatic of that episode, these episodes are 22 minutes, and I think with that animatic scene, it came in at 23 minutes. So everyone was like, “Well, I guess we gotta cut the spice scene because it doesn’t really have anything to do with the story.” And I was like, [laughing] “NO! WE’RE KEEPING IT. CUT OTHER STUFF!”
MM: It happens a lot. You’d be surprised how often it’s like, “Yeah, I know it doesn’t serve the plot, but it STAYS.”
11. Sam, Scanlan spends a lot of Season 3 being pulled between Vox Machina and Kaylie and ultimately decides to go with Kaylie. How was it playing Scanlan’s character arc and changing how his goodbye plays out in the animated series vs. Campaign 1?
SR: It was so great to be able to revisit some of that stuff. Scanlan was going through a lot of growth in the campaign at this point, and obviously in the animated series, too, and realizing what he really wants is not the bedroom kind of love but the actual kind of love that stays with you for a long, long time. And to have to make a choice between staying with Vox Machina and going with his daughter.
Obviously, we handle it differently in the animated series than we did in the campaign for a number of reasons. I’m a little nervous to see what the audience thinks about that, but it was the last episode of the season, and we didn’t want to end the season with Scanlan telling everybody to go fuck themselves. But I think what we did was sort of pay attention to the emotional arc that he was going through and really followed what he would be doing in that situation in the animated series. I think we accomplished that and got some good, bittersweet stuff out of it.
12. What were the moments from this batch of Campaign 1 episodes that you were most excited to see animated for the first time?
SR: The bath scene is the best.
LB: The kaiju fight.
MM: The Vorugal and Yenk fight is something I’ve wanted to see since we started. Since this animated series was funded. I was like, I cannot wait to get to that fight to see how ridiculous that will be, and it was everything I wanted it to be. Oh, I’m so happy.
MR: It’s really hard to top the Yenk and Vorugal fight. I mean, it was one of my favorite plans in Campaign 1 when we realized we could just bring Yenk out of that portal and just have them go toe to toe. So seeing that realized was absolutely insane.
LO: I mean, a battle between a massive demon and an ancient white dragon! Stand out. But also…Percy’s…demise.
TW: I think I would also add the characters finally connecting and hooking up and actually getting to put that to screen, I think was a joy. It was great getting to cover our faces and point at each other in the booth as we recorded some of those scenes.
I would also say the culmination of the Chroma Conclave fight with Thordak, right? Like those final moments with Pike and with Vax. We’re huge anime fans, and so we really leaned on the artists at Titmouse to just push it to the nines. And Neal Acree, our incredible composer, just absolutely makes you feel harder than you ever could without that score. So, I think that was a visual feast for us.
These stories are so much fun to tell, and for me, defeating five chromatic dragons seemed like such an unthinkable task, but really, our partners over at Titmouse Animation were up to the challenge at every single turn.
SR: I’m also super happy and proud that we got an episode that really focused mostly on Allura and Kima and their relationship because that’s not something we got to do in the original campaign. I love those characters so much.
13. And finally, there are quite a few changes from Campaign 1 vs. the animated series this season. What are you excited for fans to see and experience?
TW: I’m stoked to see people feel the weight of those changes. To realize that even the ones that think they are the truest of believers. They are the deepest lore divers. They know everything that happened in campaign. We’re here to rock you. We’re here to shake you up. We’re here to rattle the cage. Right?
LO: We’ve touched on it already. But I’m very excited for the fans to see everything that is connected to the Calamity and ancient history and the sort of god’s eye view we are approaching the animated series with. We’re not narrowed in right here with Vox Machina, but thinking about the Mighty Nein and Exandria as a whole and the Gods, either 1,000 years ago or into the future. It fills our every waking — and sometimes sleeping — hour.
MR: I mean, even in real-time, as we are playing these games on Thursday nights still at the table, and then something might happen, and you’re like, Oh shit, we should rewrite this in the animated series. So it’s very fascinating to be building an adaptation off of source material that is still being developed in real-time.
