The Legend of Vox Machina brought Critical Role’s first Dungeons & Dragons game to animation for anybody with a Prime Video subscription back in 2022, and now the company of voice actors are bringing their second campaign to the small screen before the end of the 2025 TV schedule. Called The Mighty Nein, a new sneak peek shows that a similar animation style doesn’t mean that this will be Legend of Vox Machina 2.0. As somebody without much background on the Mighty Nein campaign other than what I gleaned while researching Tusk Love, I’m pretty sure I already have a favorite.
Prime Video’s The Mighty Nein
Major updates on The Mighty Nein were announced as part of Critical Role’s Prime Video panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2025, including a big treat for fans of the campaign who have been waiting years for the animated adaptation. The series will premiere Season 1 on November 19, and the reveals confirm that The Legend of Vox Machina wasn’t the only show from the company that could recruit big names as guest stars.
Among those guest stars are Mark Strong, Alan Cumming, Tim McGraw, Anika Noni Rose, Ming-Na Wen, Auli’i Cravalho, Rahul Kohli, Robbie Daymond, and Jonathan Frakes. With guests like country superstar Tim McGraw and Disney movie musical vets Anika Noni Rose and Auli’i Cravalho, I have to wonder if The Mighty Nein has found ways to include original songs without having a bard on the team, like Vox Machina’s Scanlan (Sam Riegel). The misfits join forces to try and save the realm when The Beacon, a powerful arcane weapon, falls into the wrong hands.
The series will follow a group of fugitives and outcasts, including Laura Bailey as Jester Lavorre, Liam O’Brien as Caleb Widogast, Marisha Ray as Beauregard Lionett, Travis Willingham as Fjord Stone, Taliesin Jaffe as Mollymauk Tealeaf, Riegel as Nott, Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nydoorin, and Matt Mercer – if true to LOVM style – voicing many, many characters.. Now, if I was picking my favorite character based on nothing but name, I’d probably have to go with Mollymauk Tealeaf, but the sneak peek has me choosing somebody else on more substance than a whimsical name.
Take a look:
I’m not sure if this is a snippet from an episode of The Mighty Nein or an in medias res opening to the series similar to what Critical Role did with The Legend of Vox Machina in a tavern, but I do know who made me laugh the most and therefore became my favorite character.
I Already Love Caleb Widogast
Have I magically picked up all the background info about the Mighty Nein – or Sensual Seven – based on less than two minutes of a sneak peek, which doesn’t even feature Ashley Johnson’s Yasha? I have not, and the cast is showing off a variety of different accents than their Vox Machina characters. It is definitely enough for me to understand why there was so much of Jester involved in the packaging of Tusk Love, but my favorite? That would be Caleb.
Characters like Jester and Nott seem like they’ve been set up to be the most comedic characters, but the one who actually got me to laugh out loud was Caleb. I think that Liam O’Brien may be speaking real-life German rather than an original language to Critical Role, but I’m also pretty confident that Caleb isn’t going to spend the whole series speaking in subtitles.
A seemingly straight man character speaking a different language just to avoid interrogation while goofier characters cause a scene? I’m in. Plus, if that is real German, the group’s name basically means “Mighty No,” which is also funny.
Will I still favor Caleb when The Mighty Nein premieres? Only time will tell, but Critical Role fans can look forward to the new series before the end of the year, while The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 won’t arrive until 2026. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, November 19 to see the Mighty Nein in action!
