Vox Machina continues their battle against the Chroma Conclave in season 3 of Prime Video’s “The Legend of Vox Machina,” premiering October 3. The adventuring party was able to eliminate Umbrasyl in season 2, but Thorak, Raishan, and Vorugal still remains. In order to take on the Chroma Conclave, the party is in search for more vestiges, which sends them on a direct path to hell in order to acquire what they need.
The Movie Couple had the pleasure of participating in the press conference alongside other journalists, to learn more about what’s to come this season.
What Can the Audience Expect In Season 3?
Vox Machina will venture into hell this season, as Critical Role DM and Executive Producer Matthew Mercer previews what the party will be facing. “Vox Machina are still rallying against the Chroma Conclave. They managed to fell one of their numbers. But others exist. There’s a possible, dubious conversation with one of them, an impossible Alliance. There’s all sorts of weird, mingled stuff there. But as the search for these vestiges to have the means of defeating the Conclave continues, part of it leads them, indeed, to hell.
Critters tuning in can expect familiar moments from the campaign, as well as surprises this season, continues Mercer, “It’s there’s a lot of really exciting things coming up in the season, but for those who are familiar with the campaign, there’ll be a lot of really, really cool, familiar moments and some very unique and surprising ones as well. And I’m really excited for everyone to get a chance to check.”
Season Three Is A Big Divergence From the Campaign
While familiar and key moments from the campaign will be captured this season, Mercer hints that fans are also in store for some surprises in expanding other characters’ stories, “We’ve gotten to even spotlight some of the non-Vox Machina characters’ the world a little more, and spend more time with them. To a degree.”
Executive Producer/Director and voice of Grog Strongjaw Travis Willingham says, “Season 3 is a big divergence for our characters. I think part of it as we were considering story beats and moments and how we wanted the show to approach this culmination with the Chroma Conclave, we’re always looking for ways to improve or economize or maybe put a new shine on some moments now that we have this second chance at telling them, but we’re also trying to tee up things down the road, not just in this show, but also in the Mighty Nein. We’ve had years and years of gameplay since these episodes where we played the very first time, and so we’re always trying to go back and seed things early, if we can, and provide something new for our audience that thinks they know it to they know what to expect. If we can unsettle them just a little bit, we hope to level the playing field in terms of who’s who’s viewing what. But I defer to the others as well.”
Liam O’Brien adds, “There are massive fan favorite moments that are going to sideswipe the audience, and we’re just waiting in the wings for it to slide out on stage and blow people away. You’re not going to be disappointed. I’m excited for the cleverest thing Laura Bailey said in campaign one.”
The group’s cleric Pike Trickfoot (voiced by Ashley Johnson) will have a story arc that was not seen in the campaign, mainly because during the actual play campaign, Johnson was often filming in New York for a separate project. “I feel like we get to have a lot of moments. I mean, yes, specifically with Pike, of getting to see where we could have gone with the story had I been at the table, and also where we are going with the story, and in the animated series, and how Pike can sort of fit in there. We look for ways to sort of plus it. And, you know, obviously sitting at the table that’s hundreds and thousands of hours that we have to truncate and into an episode or 12 episodes. It feels really cool, because I feel like I get to do things that I didn’t really get to at the table, and to be able to go into places, get to go to hell, which is going to be really fun.”
It’s not just the main characters’ stories that may be different, Sam Riegel (voice of Scanlan Shorthall) says that the group will venture to different places than fans may have seen in the campaign, “I think the character that we adjusted most in this season is Vox Machina, like, as a group, from the campaign to the screen. We go to different places in different orders. We split up in different ways that we didn’t do in the campaign. We reunited in different ways than we did in the campaign. And so really, just sort of like the whole linear arc of the season differs from the campaign a lot, and then also characters that aren’t main Vox Machina characters like Kima and Allura. We focus on them in ways this season that they just never got that kind of spotlight in the campaign. And it’s really fun to look at these characters, beloved characters, that didn’t get their own sort of campaign episode, but now they get their own episode in the animated series. And that’s a really cool opportunity.”
The Cast Teases What’s To Come For The Mighty Nein Series
While we don’t have word on when Critical Role’s second campaign featuring The Mighty Nein will premiere as an animated series, the team has been hard at work, and even released an early animatic teasing one of the scenes featuring Fjord and Jester. Fans will not only get to see their favorite character moments come to life in the series but also see these characters from before The Might Nein was formed in a session zero-like manner.
Willingham says, “One of the things I think we’re looking forward to the most is seeing some of these villains that we will come to learn and to hate, to meet and maybe even love, in some cases, spend time with them. And I think, as we’ve teased before, we’re visiting these characters for more of a session zero perspective, which is how they all started before they come together as a group, and what it is that brings them together, which for some of the audience, will be entirely new material, and some things that they may have heard of but have never seen before. So we’re really excited to bring that to the screen for the first time.
Laura Bailey (voice of Vex’halia and Jester) was not able to spoil anything, but hints that dick jokes will be in the series. Liam O’Brien (voice of Vax and Caleb) expands on what fans can expect, “First of all, many of those dicks jokeswill be in Zemnian. So it’s a, it’s a multicultural experience,” and he describes the Might Nein series to have “spy thriller, grief, thick action, budding love story.”
Familiar Voices Returning for Season 3
The series boasts an impressive cast of voice actors, including Stephanie Beatriz, Indira Varma, Gina Torres, and more. This season will debut brand new voices as wells, says Riegel:
“We do have some returning voices. Stephanie, Beatriz is coming back, and Indira Varma – Kima and Allura, they’re featured pretty heavily in this. We get to see Gilmore, Sunil Malhotra, in new situations and doing new skills that Gilmore hasn’t done before. There are some new cast members who will be debuting.” Riegel remained tight-lipped about the new cast, so audiences will have to tune in to season 3 to find out.
The Cast On Working with Lance Reddick
The actor known for movies such as “John Wick” and “Bosch” voiced Thordak unfortunately passed away in 2023. Sam Riegel reflects on working with Reddick and being able to keep his original performance for season 3, “I think we were very fortunate that we got to record Lance Reddick. He recorded the season before his passing, and we’re so happy that we got him, we got him in the in the show to begin with, and that we that we got to keep his performance, because it was magnificent, and it was a tragedy to see him go and but he lives on as as an evil dragon.”
Matthew Mercer Lends His Musical Talents To This Season
Another fun element of turning campaign one into an animated series is adding music to emphasize certain moments. Matthew Mercer talks about how those musical moments are added into each episode, “From my perspective, at least a lot of it was like just playful banter in the writer’s room about what moments could jokingly be musical moments. But the majority of it was actually Sam [Riegel] and Peter Abib, and the folks in production just kind of basically just coming up with ridiculous ideas on where to fit songs, both mid episode, versus, you know, and credit bits and some things, just kind of along the process of recording it and then coming up with a fun idea as it goes along.”
Riegel expands on the musical element of the show, “We’re we continue what we’ve done in prior seasons, where there are fun songs that help just sort of carry the vibe and the mood. And there’s some important songs that deal with that deal with plot and are integral to the to the storytelling. And this season, we actually rely on Matt Mercer more to provide us with some vocals this season in two key moments in the season – one you might not even recognize that it’s Matt’s voice, but it’s, it’s in a pivotal, emotionally gutting moment of the season, and Matt sings a song that will, I hope, break your heart, and then he gets to sing in character, also in a totally different episode. So I’m excited. I’m always excited when we get songs from characters that are not me.”
The Cast On Recreating Pivotal Moments of the Campaign
Critical Role’s first campaign began in 2015, but recreating some of the key moments brings the cast right back to table where it first happened. Taliesen Jaffe (voice of Percy de Rolo) talks about getting to relive certain scenes:
“We really get to pick and choose where we want to go in the moments we want to highlight. And it’s this delight going in there and having that memory of the first time when we were just pulling this out of our butt, so to speak. Now, allowing it to be drama and comedy, and knowing that when we actually see it on screen, it’s somehow always better than it was in my head. Other than in my head, Vex is always hotter. That’s the only thing it’s it’s just always elevated that I it’s, it’s really amazing to be able to give these moments to artists and then, and then just watch it blossom.”
Marisha Ray (voice of Keyleth) adds, “When we’re in these moments, all of those emotions are real. You know, we’re acting in real-time, so going back and revisiting them, it’s still just as emotionally impactful. And it is not uncommon for us to cry a lot, and then you’re exhausted for the rest of the day because you cried in your morning session, or laugh a lot, or making the same jokes. So yeah, I mean, it’s still just so emotionally palpable 10 years later.”
Laura Bailey expands on how the animated series allows them to dive back into the story emotionally, “When we played the game 10 years ago, I think all of us were still realizing what kind of emotions we could bring to the story. We were a little timid about fully going there emotionally, and it’s so wonderful in the animated series to allow ourselves to just dive in to those really deep moments.”
The Cast On Emotional Theme of Season 3
Fans of the series are no strangers to the emotional moments that’ll make you tear up and scream at your TV at the same time. The cast expands on what emotional arcs the audiences can look forward to this season. “Grief definitely is a theme through a lot of this,” says Mercer, “both for experiences in the moment and the promise of experiences to come, which was a big theme of the campaign for a number of these characters as well, which I think is a very relatable and a very cathartic theme to experience through media. It’s it’s very therapeutic, and has been for me many times, and that was therapeutic for us to go through it in the original campaign as well.”
Liam O’Brien chimes in on the topic, “We kicked off this entire series just with, you know, a romp and a tavern and a bar brawl, and we invited people in with comedy, but we really are flipping the coin, and there is cost to this season, extreme cost in pursuit of what they’re going after. And for everyone who came in for the dick jokes and the bar fight like I’m excited for them to wade into the deep end of the pool with us this season.”
Travis Willingham hints at potential heartbreaking moments in this season, “As Liam alluded to, you know, you can’t have a perfect winning streak that lasts forever, even for these heroes. So, you know, that’s, that’s something that I think that is going to be super important for people to remember this season. And I think it’s going to be interesting to watch how these heroes handle loss and tribulation.”
“The Legend of Vox Machina” will premiere on October 3 on Prime Video with three episodes.