Amazon has given a mighty embrace to the cinematic universe of Critical Role.
Amazon Studios announced a multi-year exclusive TV and first-look film deal with Critical Role, the media company and D&D roleplaying group behind Prime Video’s popular adult animated series The Legend of Vox Machina.
The first new series to be produced under the agreement is Mighty No, based on Critical Role’s second campaign, which ran from January 2018 to mid-2021. The Mighty No-Adventure Party – a gang of criminals and misfits – is the only one who can prevent the kingdom from being thrown into chaos when an arcane artifact capable of reshaping reality falls into the wrong hands. Production on Mighty No is set to begin soon in collaboration with animation studio Titmouse, which has teamed up with Critical Role and Amazon Studios for Vox Machina. The series will premiere exclusively on Prime Video, but there’s no release date yet.
Critical Role’s first animated series, The Legend of Vox Machina, is based on the first D&D campaign that the group live streamed from 2015-2017. Season 1 premiered on Prime Video in January 2022 (and still holds a 100 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes), and Season 2 debuted the first three episodes on January 20. A third season of Vox Machina was officially announced at New York Comic Con and is currently in production.
As part of the deal with Amazon Studios, Critical Role will continue to produce under its production banner, Metapigeon, which will develop its own original TV shows, films and content, while continuing to “collaborate with talented creatives on a new range of projects, both in and even outside of the critical role universe,” the companies said.
“Given the success of our animated series ‘The Legend of Vox Machina,’ we look forward to continuing our relationship with Critical Role and expanding their universe with ‘Mighty No,'” said Vernon Sanders, Head of Global TV at Amazon Studios. “Expanding these iconic franchises for our global Prime Video customers continues to be an ambitious and rewarding journey, and we’re excited to see where this new series takes us.”
Travis Willingham, Co-Founder and CEO of Critical Role said, “Critical Role’s livestream campaigns are the spark that lit the flame for our global audience. Seeing the stories and characters from our first campaign come to life in The Legend of Vox Machina was a dream come true and we’re absolutely excited to do it again with Mighty Noo. But with today’s announcement, we’re confident that the stories we tell will continue to expand into realms of entertainment beyond what we can imagine.”
The upcoming Mighty No series is executive produced by Tasha Huo, Sam Riegel and Willingham, alongside Metapigeon and Amazon Studios. Titmouse will also be executive produced by Chris Prynoski (Legend of Vox Machina), Shannon Prynoski (Fairfax), Antonio Canobbio (Arlo the Alligator Boy), and Ben Kalina (Big Mouth).
Amazon Studios first struck a deal with Critical Role in 2019, securing a two-season deal for Vox Machina following CR’s record-breaking Kickstarter campaign for their first animation project.
Critical Role began as a private D&D game night in LA in 2012 with a group of friends who are all voice actors. Since then, Critical Role – whose devoted fans are affectionately dubbed “Critters” – has expanded into multiple businesses. In addition to The Legend of Vox Machina on Prime Video, this has included New York Times Best Seller list comics, graphic novels, fiction and non-fiction, collectibles, tabletop and role-playing games, podcasts and live events.
Watch Amazon’s Mighty No Series Announcement Video:
Pictured above (left to right): Critical Role founders Liam O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Marisha Ray, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Sam Riegel, Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson