A Mighty Nein animated series from Critical Role is set to follow the production company's The Legend of Vox Machina over to Prime Video. The streamer recently premiered its adult animated fantasy series The Legend of Vox Machina season 2, following season 1's enormous success, which included a 100 percent critical approval on popular review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. With The Legend of Vox Machina already having been renewed for season 3, Prime Video begins to expand its relationship with Critical Role through the new Mighty Nein animated series.Amazon Studios (via Variety) has announced that a Mighty Nein animated series is in development for Prime Video.
The new series comes as the first project in a multiyear exclusive overall TV and first-look film deal with the production company and Dungeons & Dragons role-playing group of some of the most talented voice actors in the market, Critical Role. The Legend of Vox Machina's Mighty Nein connection was evident through an easter egg on an episode of the animated show's season 1. Critical Role has come a long way since the Vox Machina campaign premiered in 2015, with the group starting a Kickstarter campaign to fund season 1 of the animated series before Prime Video caught wind of it and ordered another two episodes, totaling 12, plus a full season 2.
Mighty Nein Explained
Mighty Nein is part of the D&D universe created by Critical Role, with the world where the group's story takes place being called Exandria. Critical Role's world includes the common D&D races and classes of characters, with the addition of a few extras directly from the mind of Dungeon Master and universe architect Matt Mercer. Vox Machina was the first campaign the group created, summing up 115 episodes that started in 2015 and ended in 2017. Three months after Vox Machina concluded, Critical Role launched its second campaign, The Mighty Nein, which would go on for 141 episodes before finishing in 2021.
The high number of episodes should offer a great deal of source material for the Mighty Nein animated series to adapt. Critical Role members have already talked about The Legend of Vox Machina going through at least season 5, with more possible. As The Mighty Nein campaign surpassed Vox Machina's length, the new series is likely to go on for some time. Although both of the D&D campaigns were set in the Exandria world, the parties were from different continents. Vox Machina came from Tal'Dorei, while Wildemount — which was briefly visited in campaign one — was The Mighty Nein's home continent.
The Mighty Nein events took place 20 years after the ending of Vox Machina, as the second campaign's party of adventurers dealt with tensions between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty — two of Wildemount's major powers. The eight core Critical Role cast members returned for campaign 2, playing all-new characters. The Mighty Nein main characters are Fjord Stone, Beauregard "Beau" Lionett, Mollymauk "Molly" Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay, Yasha Nydoorin, Nott the Brave, Caleb Widogast, and Jester Lavorre. Given the talented voice cast that makes up Critical Role, the Mighty Nein animated series should boast intriguing and charismatic characters just like The Legend of Vox Machina.
Source: Amazon Studios (via Variety)