A full, red band trailer dropped today for the eagerly awaited Critical Role animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina.
The show is an adaption of the first campaign of Critical Role, a livestreamed web series featuring a party of friends and voice actors playing Dungeons and Dragons. Despite traditional studios initially not wanting to take on the animation, The Legend of Vox Machina raised nearly $12 million (from one of the fastest funded Kickstarter campaigns in the site’s history) when the Critical Role team decided to fund the project themselves. That kind of money gets attention, and Amazon Prime Video quickly acquired the streaming rights and jumped to renew the series for a second season, before the first had even begun airing!
It looks as if the show is shaping up to be just as hilariously profane, gruesome, and epic as the hugely successful web series that it is based upon.
Until now, the central characters of The Legend of Vox Machina have been described with quirky, marketing-friendly monikers, such as “loveable misfits” and “a band of unlikely heroes.” But with the release of the red-band trailer, the carefully sanitized descriptions were given a (giant, glowing) middle finger.
The trailer has everything, from foul-mouthed revelry to badass fights. Even better, it’s packed with the kind of unfettered fun, dumbassery, and slightly manic energy that anyone who has played Dungeons and Dragons in real life will likely recognize from their own tables.
The Legend of Vox Machina looks like it will be compelling viewing for established fans and for total newcomers to both Critical Role and Dungeons and Dragons in general. Season 1 will begin with a completely new story featuring all seven of the original Vox Machina members, introducing them to new viewers. Then, for the rest of the season, the beloved, ragtag team will embark on an adapted version of the Briarwood story arc from Critical Role’s first campaign, chronicling their rise from broke, hungover brawlers to legendary heroes.
All voiced by their original players, the team is made up of Grog the barbarian (Travis Willingham, Marvel’s Avengers), Keyleth the druid (Marisha Ray, Final Fantasy XV), cleric Pike Trickfoot (Ashley Johnson, The Last of Us), Scanlan Shorthalt the bard (Sam Riegel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), gunsmith Percy (Taliesin Jaffe, Final Fantasy XIV), and half-elven twins Vax and Vex (Liam O’Brien Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and Laura Bailey, The Last of Us: Part II). Matthew Mercer (Overwatch), who plays the Dungeon Master role in the original Critical Role campaign, will be voicing Sylas Briarwood, one of the season’s main foes.
You can check out the full trailer below:
The Legend of Vox Machina is an animation for adults, produced by Critical Role in collaboration with Titmouse and Amazon Prime Video. The official season description reads:
“They’re rowdy, they’re ragtag, they’re misfits turned mercenaries for hire. Vox Machina is more interested in easy money and cheap ale than actually protecting the realm. But when the kingdom is threatened by evil, this boisterous crew realizes that they are the only ones capable of restoring justice. What began as a simple payday is now the origin story behind Exandria’s newest heroes.”
Amazon Prime Video also announced the release schedule for the series along with the trailer. The first season will have 12 episodes, with three episodes releasing each Friday, starting on January 28, 2022, as follows:
- January 28: Episodes 1-3
- February 4: Episodes 4-6
- February 11: Episodes 7-9
- February 18: Episodes 10-12
