In this interview with Critical Role and showrunner Tasha Huo, they discuss the differences between Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein and much more.
Critical Role continues their monumental adaptation into animation with the highly anticipated The Mighty Nein, premiering on Prime Video on November 19th. Following the success of The Legend of Vox Machina, this new series delves into another story that takes place in Exandria, however, it is much darker. While both shows spring from the same creative well, The Mighty Nein delivers a different, grittier, and more grounded exploration of heroism (or lack thereof) from the bottom rung of society.
Ahead of the premiere, we sat down with Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, and Matthew Mercer, along with showrunner Tasha Huo, to discuss the show’s darker tone, the unique storytelling afforded by longer episodes, and the sheer joy of bringing these “absolute fuck-ups” to life for a whole new audience.
A Different Kind of Hero: Describing The Mighty Nein
Mama’s Geeky: How would you describe The Mighty Nein for people who have only seen Vox Machina?
Taliesin Jaffe: “Oh, I mean, it’s a completely different perspective on the world. It’s the difference between watching a story about just heroes of the realm that sit above the politics and above all of the machinations of the world. And now we’re at the very, very bottom of people who really, they’re being influenced and affected by the world, but they don’t really have any control over it whatsoever.”
Marisha Ray: “A lot of people have commented on the tone being a little bit darker. You know, so if, I don’t know, if Vox Machina was The Hobbit, then this is Lord of the Rings.”
Travis Willingham: “Yeah, I think Vox Machina is trying to do a lot of good right from the get-go. These characters are not necessarily trying to do good. There might be some desire to do that from some, but we got some selfish folks in this group that are really trying to fix some really shady pasts.”
Liam O’Brien: “The Mighty Nein is a group of traumatized loners who somehow wind up in the same place at the same time and figure out how to be friends?”
Sam Riegel: “If Vox Machina is a group of wannabe heroes, I think Mighty Nein is just a wannabe group. They just want to stay together and avoid death.”
Breathing Room: The Advantage of More Time
Mama’s Geeky: What did getting double the time per episode afford you in being able to tell this story?
Laura Bailey: “I think the story has so much nuance, and we’re getting the opportunity to show so many different sides of the story that we couldn’t explore when we were doing the campaign. That getting that extra time with the episodes has really made such a huge difference in letting the character interactions and the moments that they’re exploring really breathe, you know?”
Marisha Ray: “And I think some of the tougher moments when going through Vox Machina was that it wasn’t uncommon for us to be like, hey, it’d be really great if we had a moment with these two characters, have a quiet convo… and often those were some of the first to hit the floor because we had eight other plot points that we needed to wrap up in 10 minutes. So I think being able to give a little bit more breathing room really has really been a blessing.”
Matthew Mercer: “I’m really grateful that the extended episode length has afforded us in an adaptation of our story more opportunities to sit in the quiet moments. More opportunities to let the interpersonal conversations breathe a little bit.”
Sam Riegel: “We got to explore all kinds of backstory stuff for the characters and we got to show the rich tapestry of the world and stuff that’s going on in other parts of the world which affects and will affect our characters’ main storyline.”
The Reward: Seeing the Finished Product
Mama’s Geeky: What is most rewarding for you guys when you finally get the finished product of a season or an episode?
Ashley Johnson: We started this just playing in our living rooms, and the fact that now these characters are on a screen and an animated series that’s on Prime Video. What? This is so wild but also, I’m so proud of going from Vox Machina to Mighty Nein and seeing how we’ve all grown as storytellers and it’s amazing. I’m so proud of this whole group and all of the amazing team of people that we’ve gotten to work with.
Laura Bailey: “It’s been so fun to get to watch the episodes together as a group and get to hear, because we recorded together, obviously… to get to see the finished product all together is so remarkable. And I think everybody on the animation team has just blown us away. The reveals of the worlds and the effects and the magic have been so phenomenal…”
Taliesin Jaffe: “Just being able to honestly go back and take another stab at these moments in a way where it’s structured in a way that especially as voice actors, we’re a little more used to… it’s almost like having a different kind of table to play with.”
Sam Riegel: “It’s always the most rewarding thing for me to meet somebody who doesn’t know anything about Critical Role, doesn’t know anything about tabletop gaming but falls in love with our animated series or our comic book or just our stories… All that discovery is so wonderful and I hope it leads people to delve into our storytelling more but also to play games and to make their own stories.”
Liam O’Brien: “The level of authorship that we all have as creatives in this is just off the charts compared to anything we’ve really done before… to now have something in a world where we’ve all spent years being actors on other people’s projects… it is a different animal than authoring something that is completely yours.”
The Hook: A 30-Second Introduction
Mama’s Geeky: If you had a 30-second clip you could show a non-fan, what would it be?
Marisha Ray: “I mean, it’s hard pressed to pass up the beginning moments in episode one, which are designed to bring people in. But I think one of my favorite things about this series is the full on mage battles, man. And the way that the magic and the fighting is represented and has come to life. It is, I mean, it’s killer.”
From Fan to Showrunner: The Adaptation Process
Mama’s Geeky: What is your approach to deciding how to start this story and how to introduce these characters?
Tasha Huo: “I was really intrigued by starting these characters, not knowing each other, and getting to explore who they were before we started watching them in the live show… Because we have a show we have the time and the beauty and the breadth to be able to tell a little bit more, go deeper into those stories so that was always something I was very excited about.”
Mama’s Geeky: How much do you feel the pressure of adapting a story that people love so much?
Tasha Huo: “Always feel the pressure. But because I’m coming at it as such a fan myself—I was a fan way before I got the job—I do feel like, you know, sometimes I’m more a stickler to the stuff that happened in the show, those like little tiny things that fans love and kind of expect, then some of the guys in Critical Role because they’re like, ‘we just want to tell the best story.’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, but, but this moment we have to, we have to preserve this moment and I will find a way to make this work.'”
Mama’s Geeky: Can you talk about making sure The Mighty Nein felt like a different series when tackling it?
Tasha Huo: “We definitely wanted to make sure the world felt exactly what you’re saying, darker, grittier, had a more sort of cinematic quality to it… And so that was always on, on, there’s always a topic of conversation whenever we were in the room with artists is is let’s find like film comps for this, let’s find live action comps for this to make this feel sort of bigger and grander than Vox Machina… [The characters] have really dark backstories, they come from really sad violent places and you can’t tell a light bright story with those kinds of characters.”
Mama’s Geeky: Was there a particular character’s arc you were most excited to work on?
Tasha Huo: “I mean, I love everybody… but we get to get into more Caleb stuff this season, which is just, it’s such a joy to use… I’m just so gratified that I get to tell that story in the show and it means a lot to me to be able to tell it and he just breaks my heart.”
Be sure to watch the full interview with Critical Role about The Mighty Nein and tune into Prime Video on November 19th for the first three episodes of season one.
