Elizabeth Miller ’25, Staff Writer
Amidst the busyness of this semester, I have been keeping tabs on updates for one of my favorite shows, The Legend of Vox Machina. Critical Role, the organization that inspired this show, is one of the most popular Dungeons and Dragons live streams and podcasts. Back in March of 2019, Critical Role announced their Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund an animated series of their beloved first campaign, with stretch goal milestones correlating to how many episodes they could make. Fans blew through the stretch goals, raising over one million dollars in less than an hour, over three million dollars in the first day, and at the end of their 45 day campaign, raised $11.3 million from over 88k backers.
Critical Role worked with the production company Titmouse to animate and produce the show, which was later picked up by Amazon Prime Video to stream the episodes. The expected release date was pushed back many times due to the pandemic, but the first season of the show was released in January of 2022. The show was so well received, a season two was confirmed shortly after the final episodes were released.
Since then, Critical Role fans have been awaiting the release date of season two. This past October, during their live event at New York Comic Con, the cast was happily able to announce that season two of The Legend of Vox Machina had a release window in January of 2023 – only about two months from now! Episode release is expected to be similar to the first season, with three episode batches coming out each week over a four week period. So, if you haven’t solidified a watch party yet, I suggest getting on it. This isn’t a show you’ll want to miss! And, there is plenty of time to catch up on season one.
To recap without spoiling too much, season one establishes the group as they assist the council of the city of Emon, the capital of the Republic of Tal’Dorei. As they grow closer to the council members, they are exposed to other political leaders. When leaders tie back to Percy de Rolo’s (played by Taliesin Jaffe) past, the group goes off to Whitestone to investigate the Briarwoods.
This season focuses on the arc of the campaign where Vox Machina takes on the Chroma Conclave, a group of five ancient colorful dragons set on taking over the world. The voice actors have teased that this season will delve into the personal and interconnected struggles of the characters, which was something important to this part of the campaign in their live streams. As a reminder, this show is not exactly “copied and pasted” from the original campaign to keep things interesting, though the major arcs, themes, and outcomes are expected to stay true to it.
Keep a look out this coming January for season two of The Legend of Vox Machina on Amazon Prime Video, check out Critical Role’s streams on Twitch and Youtube, and check for updates on Twitter (@CriticalRole).
