For the cast of Critical Role, one of the most exciting things about the Legend of Vox Machina animated series is a chance to infuse the story with lore they didn’t have the first time around. Since the original campaign started almost 10 years ago, the world of Exandria has only grown with two more campaigns and the Exandria Unlimited spinoffs.
“One of the real positives of going back for the adaptation in the hindsight of how much more of Exandria’s history we’ve explored through other campaigns and other characters is now we have the opportunity to go back and weave some of those in where it makes sense, both as Easter eggs and as really impactful moments,” Matt Mercer, the Dungeon Master behind Critical Role, tells Polygon.
One of those impactful moments came in one of this week’s episodes, when cleric Pike (Ashley Johnson) went head-to-head with Zerxus Ilerez from Exandria Unlimited: Calamity in a devilish card game while deep in the hells. Played by Luis Carazo, Zerxus is one of the main characters in the 2022 spinoff miniseries, which in canon takes place centuries before the events of The Legend of Vox Machina. He didn’t even exist till five years after the original Vox Machina campaign ended, so the entire interaction with Pike is new to the show. But now that he’s part of the lore, it makes sense to fold him into The Legend of Vox Machina.
“We got to […] really kind of kick off Pike’s story arc to a degree in a really impactful way, as well as weave even kind of the larger cosmology and history of Exandria as a whole,” explains Mercer. “And that was a really, really, really cool moment.”
It works the other way, too: The current story can now more directly seed in bigger world-building and overarching plots that will come into play down the line. After all, there’s a Mighty Nein series already on the way. The Critical Role campaigns set in Exandria have all built upon each other, but since the very nature of Dungeons & Dragons actual play means a ton of unscripted moments, it’s hard to predict what little moment in an early campaign will get called back much later. The animated series gives the cast a chance to do more deliberate foreshadowing.
“[In] this season, more than any other, Exandria really starts to stretch its legs and show you what it’s capable of, and also starts to tee up some larger questions about the world on a global scale instead of just these characters,” says Travis Willingham, who voices goliath barbarian Grog Strongjaw and also writes for the show. “Those small personal relationships are so important and tantamount to what we do. But as the continents start to shift, you also start to wonder if they’re even playing with secure footing in the first place. And that’s something that’s really exciting to us.”
New episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina drop every Thursday.
