The Mighty Nein continues the dominance of Critical Role in the nerdy entertainment sphere. Building out of a home game of Dungeons & Dragons and evolving into a massive sprawling epic, The Mighty Nein is the second animated adaptation of the group’s RPG campaigns.
While attending the red carpet premiere of The Mighty Nein in Hollywood, Screen Rant got the chance to speak with showrunner Tasha Huo, as well as the assembled stars of the show (Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Matthew Mercer, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Travis Willingham, and Khary Payton) about Critical Role’s legacy and the joys of D&D.
Bringing Mighty Nein To Life
As a fan of Critical Role before taking on the Showrunner role for The Mighty Nein, Tasha Huo happily explained how she keeps “having to pinch herself” over this job. “You get to wake up every day and talk story. Unlike any other job, you get to actually talk to the characters. ‘Hey, Caleb, why did you do this thing?“
At the core of the production process was a desire to make sure The Mighty Nein felt like a different show from The Legend of Vox Machina. “We definitely wanted to make it something different. We wanted to make sure Vox Machina felt like its own thing, and that Mighty Nein was different.”
Describing the show as more mature and grittier than the more straightforward fantasy adventure of Vox Machina, Huo explained that “we’re telling a more sophisticated story. It’s fun because it shows the depth of the world that Critical Role has created. You can tell a story like this and a story like [Vox Machina], but it’s still the same space.“
Mighty Nein Celebrates 10 Years Of Critical Role
The Mighty Nein isn’t the only thing that Critical Role fans have to celebrate. Beyond the new Prime Video show, there’s also the upcoming fourth season of The Legend of Vox Machina, the launch of their massive Campaign 4, and the tenth anniversary of the franchise.
“It’s insane,” Matt Mercer noted. “It seems hackneyed at this point, at every single year that goes by, we’re all going ‘how is this happening?!’ We’re just grateful. You realize how rare something like this is, so we’re just trying to put all of ourselves into it, year after year. Sometimes it’s tiring, but we’re so proud and so grateful.“
“I feel like we’re pinching ourselves every day,” Marisha Ray concurred. “Nothing is taken for granted. When we started this ten years ago, it wasn’t necessarily the intent to create a nerdy empire, but oops, guess we did that. We all feel like we’ll sleep when we’re dead. In the meantime, what else can we do?“
That development still catches Taliesin Jaffe by surprise. “It’s hard to have expectations, because none of this makes any sense. Everything is this explosion of delight. Everybody who ever plays D&D is always like, I wish I had action figures and cartoons. Now we have two cartoons! I’ve got to come up with new goals. Maybe a theme park?“
Jaffe’s Weird Kids co-host Ashley Johnson agreed, saying that “it never gets old. Each time we get to do something like this and release a new project, hear the response and all that, it always feels new and exciting and wild that we get to do this. We are all beyond grateful for every second of this journey.”
If we can help other creators bring their stories forward, that’s something we’re always going to want to do.
Reflecting on The Mighty Nein in particular, Laura Bailey noted that “it was like seven years ago when we first started playing these characters… It’s amazing to see all this.” Travis Willingham concurred, noting that it’s just “a brilliant thing to watch it all just sort of rise in this tsunami, one thing after the other.“
Bailey and Willingham also appear in Dispatch, from AdHoc Games. Now working with Critical Role Productions on a new game, Willingham and Bailey explained that “We love that we’ve been able to bring these stories forward because of our audience. Now, if we can help other creators bring their stories forward, that’s something we’re always going to want to do.”
“We’re so lucky,” Sam Riegel noted with a smile. “We’re so lucky to be able to tell these stories and bring this world to our viewers. We just like hanging out with each other. It’s been 10 years of being with my best friends, and that’s the greatest thing that you could ever hope for. It’s literally the dream job.”
Liam O’Brien reflected on his youthful ambitions, noting, “I had a dream for my life, and what has happened is that my friends and I overshot it. I reached a point where I was growing up and throwing childish things away. I just came full circle, and used my nerdy passions for the art, and I’m having the best time.”
Returning To The Wildemount Wilds
One of the exciting elements of a show like The Mighty Nein for the cast is that they get the chance to revisit characters they haven’t played in years. Running from 2018 to 2021, the second major Critical Role campaign featured a wild bunch of criminals, runaways, and misfits to play with.
“We do get to move things around a little bit, which I’m quite happy about, Jaffe noted. Speaking to how the foreknowledge to the arcs of characters like his Mollymauk “Molly” Tealeaf impacted the show, Jaffe embraced how it “has given us more time to hit points and polish things up, which I’m super excited. And another jacket.“
We got to make adjustments within the story to make it all make sense.
Revisiting Beau was great for Ray, saying “it’s been really great to explore more of her backstory and where she came from. Also, when you’re playing D&D, I try my best to describe in a different way each time how to throw a punch. It’s been really amazing seeing her fighting style be brought to life by the animators.“
Recalling how Yasha was complicated during Campaign 2 by other commitments, Johnson noted how “we got to make adjustments within the story to make it all make sense. I’m excited to see people who haven’t watched the campaign. Yasha is also one of my favorite characters I’ve played. I was glad to return to her.“
Comparing it to the initial joys of returning to Vox Machina, Mercer explained, “you realize how much you miss these characters. To be able to step back in with them and re-experience what it’s like in the story — for us, as performers, we’re just excited to share it with everybody.” Mercer is also personally excited to play Essick.
“Taking [characters like Fjord] back to the start,” Willingham explained, “which was years and years ago, has been great. Just remembering where they were, finding those emotions again as they all meet each other for the first time, it’s been great.”
Bailey concurred, with the married couple joking together about the “gravitational pull” of Bailey’s character, Jester. “It’s hard to pretend that’s not there,” Bailey laughed, highlighting the impact that the fan-favorite character has on the season.
For Riegel, the true challenge of revisiting Nott came in the vocal performance. “She is a ball of nerves, and she screams a lot, so I had to warm up my voice to do all that yelling. It’s just so great to play a character who lets their emotions out all the time.“
Meanwhile, O’Brien lamented his character choices, joking, “I had to shake myself. Why did I do this?! Caleb has a real rough time.” This is consistent with the arc for Caleb Widogast in the show, which is a pretty consistently tough time for the Wizard.
Khary Payton, who appeared in Campaign 2 as Shakäste and has a role in The Mighty Nein, recalled how “I had never played Dungeons & Dragons before I played [Shakäste]. For me, this is like a homecoming. I can’t thank these guys enough… I had never known rolling dice could feel like a football game.“
A Roll Of The Dice And A New Character Sheet
Because of the nature of Critical Role, it seemed prudent to ask the talent to create a new character on the spot. “This is the exact kind of question I like,” Huo remarked with a laugh. “I think I would do a Wizard. I would be a Tiefling too, because I want to futz with some demon backstory.”
“I haven’t been an Elf in a while,” Jeffe noted, and explained that “I’m digging Sorcerers.” Neither of them was the only prospective player to go the magic-caster route, either. “I’m going Sorcerer,” Bailey proudly claimed. Willingham concurred, noting that he’d “pick Wizard. We’re both squishy.” Bailey also expressed excitement over another Elf character. “They have so many bonuses!“
“I love Bards so much,” Riegel admitted, noting that he would love to play “something that doesn’t look like me. So maybe a turtle bard?” Meanwhile, O’Brien was excited about the idea of playing a “gnome druid, flowers in his hair, mud on his face.”
Mercer and Ray, who are also married in real life, both cited Dwarf as their choice of new race. “A Bard, too, let’s make it easy, Mercer joked. For Ray, part of that stemmed from her enjoyment of playing a Dwarf character in Campaign 4. “A Dwarf Barbarian would also be a lot of fun.”
Johnson admitted that “if we’re just playing immediately right now, I would probably go Barbarian. I kind of understand it all right away. I’m going with Dwarf, because I’ve never played a Dwarf.” Payton had a similar response, noting, “I might go ahead and be a Fighter. I’ve been a Barbarian. Maybe I’ll see how I do without rage.“
The Mighty Nein
- Release Date
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November 19, 2025
- Network
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Prime Video
- Writers
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Tasha Huo
- Franchise(s)
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Critical Role
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Liam O’Brien
Caleb (voice)
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