Critical Role, the media company behind the popular web series of the same name, has partnered with Amazon Prime Video to bring an animated version of the program exclusively to the platform.
Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina, based on the adventures and characters in the Critical Role online series, is an adult animated action comedy starring the voice actors and creators of the Critical Role brand. Amazon Studios has ordered two seasons of the upcoming series and has also inked a first-look deal with the company to develop future projects for Amazon Prime, exclusively.
Officially launched in 2015 on Amazon’s Twitch platform, Critical Role is a weekly series created by video game and TV voice actor Matthew Mercer in which he and fellow voice actors play through their Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The team’s studio shares the same name of its flagship show, but since its debut, Critical Role has branched out into various other web series, podcasts and comics.
The Legend of Vox Machina originally began as a Kickstarter campaign for a 22-minute animated episode of the Critical Role show, to be produced and animated by American animation studio Titmouse, Inc., and quickly reached its financial goals. In all, the campaign eventually raised over $11 million dollars to fund a 10-episode season of the animated program. As part of the new agreement with Amazon Prime, an additional 14 episodes were ordered, bringing the total to 24 episodes across two seasons.
The show will star original Critical Role members Mercer, Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham who will reprise their roles and serve as exec producers alongside Brandon Auman and Chris Prynoski. Sung Jin Ahn will serve as supervising director for the series.
“Critical Role blazed a new trail for original digital content, with fresh new voices and humor that earned devoted fans around the world, as evidenced by their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We’re thrilled to work with the whole team to bring The Legend of Vox Machina, and new Critical Role series, to our Prime Video customers.”
Critical Role is the most recent popular web series to sign a deal with a TV or streaming service, as last week WarnerMedia’s TruTV ordered 20 episodes of a game show based on the YouTube interview show Hot Ones.
