How The Legend Of Vox Machina Found New Actors For Matthew Mercer's NPC Roles
"Dungeons & Dragons," and tabletop RPGs in general, are some of the most fun you can do with a group. The crafting of a fantasy world and the improvised telling of a story as a community is exhilarating, and it's no surprise that livestream campaigns of these games have become so popular in recent years. As time-consuming as the games can be, they offer long-form storytelling that can never be replicated, because no two tables and no two campaigns are the same.
Of course, there are "Dungeons & Dragons" livestreams and then there's "Critical Role," a livestream show where a group of voice actors, led by Matt Mercer, play a game of "D&D." The show started streaming in 2015 and it quickly grew to titanic levels of popularity, with millions of views and subscribers. Fans were drawn to the show's laugh-out-loud crude humor, tear-jerking moments, and its story full of twists and turns, as well as compelling characters.
One of the reasons the show became as popular as it did was the appeal of experienced voice actors who quickly embody their characters. Seeing these adventurers brought to life through professional voice acting is very cool, but as great as Matt Mercer is (the man plays Levi, after all), having dozens of characters played by the same person works on "The Simpsons," but probably not in an animated adaptation of "Critical Role." Thankfully, he doesn't have to, because "The Legend of Vox Machina" has expanded its cast to include a mighty impressive list of names, from Lance Reddick and Janet Varney, to "Lord of the Rings" hobbit actors Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd.
Passion is contageous
The original "Critical Role" campaign had a rather simple casting process; the voice actors were already friends playing in one of their homes. As the show grew, they had guest stars come in, mostly other actors and friends of the cast.
When it came to "The Legend of Vox Machina," that sentiment mostly stayed the same. As Travis Willingham, a member of the main cast, a writer on the show and also the CEO of Critical Role Productions, told CBR, "Compiling the wish-list was pretty cool. Like, 'Would this person actually work on this? They're going to? Oh my god.' It's, you know, it's a dream."
According to Sam Riegel, another member of the main cast, an executive producer on the animated show, and also the casting director, they mostly tried to reach out to the people they most wanted to see join the story. "Luckily me and my fellow castmates are well-established in the voiceover and animation world, so we had a bunch of contacts, a bunch of friends who are well-established voice actors," Riegel told Comics Beat. "Putting together the cast of 'Legend of Vox Machina,' it involved a little bit of everything."
For some of the roles they could simply text or call someone they knew, but for the more heavy-hitting actors (the cast includes Lance Reddick, Indira Varma, and Stephanie Beatriz) they had to go through their representatives, lawyers, and clear more roadblocks. Ultimately, Riegel says, it was the unique story of the project that brought major talent to the show:
"We found that it was really compelling to just say how 'Critical Role' came about and to show them our passion for the project and how these characters were sort of invented by a group of friends and became something that was much more popular than anyone could foresee."
Telling an epic story
The result is a show that encapsulates the improvised feeling of the original "Critical Role" livestreams, the creative chaos of playing an RPG and the joy of seeing happy accidents result in fun yet unpredictable shenanigans, while still feeling like a scripted series. At a time where every streaming and studio wants their own epic fantasy series, "The Legend of Vox Machina" feels different and unique for how grounded and personal it feels due to its source material, while still being very much a fantasy series with many grand locations, an epic story, and a giant cast of characters voiced by some of the best actors in the business.
The second season of "The Legend of Vox Machina" is streaming on Prime Video, with a third season on the way. A new animated series based on the second "Critical Role" campaign, titled "Mighty Nein," was recently picked up by Prime Video.