Critical Role Critical Role: Amazon Orders 2 Seasons Of The Legend Of Vox Machina

Amazon has ordered two seasons of the Critical Role animated show, The Legend of Vox Machina! This is the show that was Kickstarted for about $10M last year.

Originally, 10 episodes were planned from the massive Kickstarter. Amazon has ordered 14 more, to make 24 total, aimed at late 2020.

Amazon owns Twitch, on which Critical Role made its name.

Kickstarter backers will still get the first look at the show, and will be able to access the first season for free.

Amazon Orders 2 Seasons Of Adult Animated Series ‘Critical Role: The Legend Of Vox Machina’ As Part Of First-Look Deal

Amazon has ordered two 12-episode seasons of adult animated series <em>Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina,</em> based on the adventures and original characters from Critical Role.

deadline.com

Amazon Orders Two Seasons of Critical Role’s Animated ‘Legend of Vox Machina’ Series

Amazon Prime Video ordered two seasons of Critical Role's "The Legend of Vox Machina" after a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign.

variety.com

Amazon Orders Two Seasons of Animated ‘Critical Role’ Series

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.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Here's CR's own announcement:

Hello, bees!

We slyly hinted towards sharing some really big news and today is the big day!

Our friends at Amazon have partnered with us to broadcast Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machinaexclusively on Amazon Prime Video! And that’s not all… This partnership has allowed us to create TWO ENTIRE SEASONS and an additional TWO episodes per season. That’s a total of 24 episodes of animated Vox Machina goodness that we cannot wait to share with you.

What’s more, Amazon is throwing their support behind the show, allowing us to improve on the quality of the animation, the score, the special effects – you name it. And with 24 episodes to play with, instead of just 10, we’ll not only complete the entire Briarwood storyline in the animated series, but we’ll forge ahead into other classic Vox Machina story arcs as well!

Our lovely Kickstarter backers (hey, that’s YOU!) will still have an opportunity to watch the two-part special that kicks off the series before anyone else AND because you’re a backer, you'll be able to access the first season for free. We’re still working out all of the logistical details and should have an update around how all of this will work in late 2020.

We also announced a few more key players on our creative team, each mega-talented in their craft:

• Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham (executive producers): Along with stepping back into their roles as the voices of Vox Machina, our cast will also serve as executive producers of the animated series.
• Brandon Auman (executive producer): You may know Brandon as the executive producer of Star Wars Resistance and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as his writing on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the upcoming Blade Runner: Black Lotus.
• Chris Prynoski (executive producer, Titmouse): Chris is pretty much the guy that makes all the Titmouse magic happen and has played a major role in a bunch of cool animated projects, like Big Mouth, Niko and the Sword of Light, Tigtoneand The Venture Brothers.
• Sung Jin Ahn (supervising director): Sung Jin is an Emmy-Award nominated director and has worked alongside Chris as the director for Niko and the Sword of Light, as well as other incredible projects like Motorcity and TRON: Uprising.

Our crazy little show was born on Twitch and we’re absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to continue to grow and develop deeper roots within the Amazon ecosphere.

We love you all very much and… Is it Thursday yet?

<3

Critical Role

 

[Maestrino]

So will be be a "Dungeons and Dragons" show? Or just a fantasy show? I know they play D&D, and D&D Beyond is a sponsor, but is there anything officially D&D about CR (full disclosure: I don't watch it). If not, that's too bad. D&D needs a powerful pop culture presence that isn't just nods and nostalgia.

Joe Manganiello's character Arkhan the Cruel crossed over from Critical Role's first campaign into the Descent into Avernus module, so there's already a canon connection from Critical Role to WotC content. I'd bet more is coming.

 

[darjr]

He’s in one of the epics. I ran him and he beheaded a friends beloved character when his character chose.... unwisely.....

 

[MarkB]

Right, I was referring to branding. It would seem weird D&D wasn't a thing with this show, but Hasbro has seemed to be completely unwilling to utilize the brand, so...?

When the show's setting, Exandria, was released as a campaign setting book, they already did a lot of work to strip out D&D IP from it, like using alternate names for the gods. So, in terms of them being able to make the series without directly referencing anything that would make Hasbro's lawyers twitch, they've done a lot of that work already.

In terms of whether they or WotC would like the D&D brand name on the cartoon, I suspect that for Critical Role it doesn't do them any favours - probably still a lot of licencing issues tied to that name, and basically they already got paid for this work through the Kickstarter.

WotC would probably see it as an opportunity, but an expensive one - they'd have to pay to get their foot in the door. And at this point they'd also have to make it worth Amazon's while, and that's almost certainly out of their price range.

 

[Jaeger]

...Wonder what that means for the kickstarter campaign and all those raised funds if Amazon is paying the tab now.

Shouldn't make any difference: they made sure to not promise any particular access to the backers, just swag and making the show exist. They were wise in underpromising, unlike some previous show KS.

While I have my own opinions on CR as a show....

I can't hate on this hustle.

$$$$$$$$ in pockets for the win.

And if the show does well enough it could get picked up for several more seasons where they still draw fat cash with Amazon paying the overhead.

Brilliant.

 

[zedturtle]

In terms of whether they or WotC would like the D&D brand name on the cartoon, I suspect that for Critical Role it doesn't do them any favours - probably still a lot of licencing issues tied to that name, and basically they already got paid for this work through the Kickstarter.

The animation for the D&D Beyond spot and the opening animation for the show itself already specify that all D&D trademarks and copyrights are used with permission from WotC, it would be a quick and easy win for the opening sequence to include something like

Inspired by Dungeons & Dragons™
All trademarks and copyrights used with permission.
​

WotC gets free advertising, CR/Amazon gets safe harbor so that there's no issue of copyright suits later on.

 

[Nilbog]

A bit OT but surely Hasbro has to sit up and take notice, CR is one of the hottest properties out there right now, and with D&D going against Hasbro's overall losses, surely they have to be looking at pushing it harder? If that's a good thing is a different question entirely

Back to the op I'm looking forward to seeing this, I'm not part of the streaming generation, and have pretty much missed out in cr so far, but a chance to see a fantasy themed show (I'm definitely part of the Saturday morning cartoon generation!) based on D&D, I'm all in.

 

[Gorath99]

Hmm. Torn here. The additional budget and support is definitely good news. But Prime is a horrible deal where I live. Unfortunate that Netflix didn't nab the show.

 

[akr71]

I'm happy for the cast and excited to see the final product. However, I'm hardly surprise that Prime is where they ended up - they stream on Twitch (owned by Amazon) and are heavily sponsored by D&D Beyond (owned by Amazon).

Also smart business by Amazon - they knew that they'd have to give access to the first 10 episodes to the KS backers, so why not pony up the $ to make more episodes. That way the die hard Critters will have to subscribe if they want to watch the entire thing.

 

[gyor]

So will be be a "Dungeons and Dragons" show? Or just a fantasy show? I know they play D&D, and D&D Beyond is a sponsor, but is there anything officially D&D about CR (full disclosure: I don't watch it). If not, that's too bad. D&D needs a powerful pop culture presence that isn't just nods and nostalgia.

The D&D Survey they just released had the setting for Vox listed as a D&D Setting Exandia and Blood Hunter listed among possible favourite classes. I think a deal to make The Legend of Vox Machina an official D&D Setting is in the works already, allowing this show to be an official D&D show and most likely leading to the release of an official D&D Exandia Setting/AP book. It just makes good business sense for WotC.

 

[zhivik]

So will be be a "Dungeons and Dragons" show? Or just a fantasy show? I know they play D&D, and D&D Beyond is a sponsor, but is there anything officially D&D about CR (full disclosure: I don't watch it). If not, that's too bad. D&D needs a powerful pop culture presence that isn't just nods and nostalgia.

I am pretty certain they said it would be just a fantasy story at some point, whether on Talks Machina (their post-game talk show) or on this special here (a talk with Titmouse representatives, the studio that will do the actual animation):


I mean, it wouldn't make any sense to show actual game mechanics, it is the story they are interested in, and they have plenty of it to animate. There are already speculations what they could cover in the second season, by the way, but if it proves successful, it could cover the entire first campaign and possibly carry on with the current one, if it is over by then.

At any rate, I am very happy they succeeded, I hope the money they get from Amazon lets them create a lot more content, because the entire roleplaying community benefits from it, regardless whether you like Critical Role or not.