As they celebrate their 10th anniversary, much of the group who make up Critical Role – including Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Liam O'Brien, Laura Bailey and Matthew Mercer – gathered together for a celebratory panel at IGN Live moderated by Amelia Emberwing, looking back at the path so far and teasing what the future will hold.
Obviously the group could never have predicted the long term popularity of Critical Role when they began it 10 years ago. Asked when they began to realize it was becoming something truly successful, Willingham said “The first year, when more than 5000 people were watching an episode, I was like “uh oh!” because I never expected that and then the number kept growing.” He added that once they began doing convention appearances “and a comic book came around,” he knew this was a big deal.
Ray said it was actually their first convention appearance that really made an impact on her, laughing that back then, “We didn't understand the difference between concurrent viewers and total viewers,” so they assumed they only had a few thousand fans total around the world. “Then we went to the conventions and there were so many people and it was like ‘How are you all watching!?’”
Asked about moments that made them laugh the most while doing the show, the word “quiff” came up a lot, with Mercer mock insisting “Look, quiff is a nonsense word that has no true definition!” Ray also cracked up at Mercer once saying “Spread your legs and stretch your wings, with Mercer retorting “You know what I was going for!
While Ashley Johnson and Sam Riegel couldn’t make it, the panelists all were happy to talk them up - beyond joking about who smells the best and O’Brien joking “I commend Ashley for sticking to the bit of using dice she can't see. It’s a real leap of faith!”
Mercer noted how talented Johnson is “but she doesn’t believe it,” while Ray added “Ashley’s low key the funniest person I know because she’s not trying to be funny.” As Mercer put it “Ashley’s sense of humor is very Twin Peaks. It’s very odd and left of center.” As for Riegel, O’Brien remarked, “You know how talented he is, but Sam is one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met,” with Jaffe saying he’s always so busy “I’m convinced he has a twin.”
Regarding the impact fans have had on Critical Role, Bailey recalled that in the early days, “I’d go on social media and see immediate fan art of what had [just] happened and it was mind blowing. It was cyclical and it would affect how I saw things when I saw someone’s visual of it.”
Willingham then cracked, “If you’re really lazy like me at coming up with a backstory, you wait until the first couple of episodes come in and use all the theories and speculation and pull from that.”
Jaffe said, for his part, “I don’t look at anything online ever because I figure if I like it, hopefully they do too,” though he added “The cosplay though and the art gets in my head and stays there.”
Critical Role will debut their second animated series soon in the form of Mighty Nein, which Willingham noted will differ from The Legend of Vox Machina by focusing on characters who don’t know each other initially and seeing them “come together and finding out maybe they don’t fit together that well.”
He added, “We’ve recorded the entire first and second season and we're going to hit all the moments you as fans and we as players and GMs want to see,” while promising some updates will be coming about the show this summer. Bailey mentioned the cast had watched the first three episodes together and were incredibly excited by how it turned out with O’Brien saying, “You guys are gonna be rarely happy. It came out really well.”
As for what else could be in the works, Willingham said “We look back at the last ten years of stories and we have no intention of leaving those characters alone, whether it be in an animated series or a feature or [something else].”
Willngham mentioned how they’d been teasing video game and interactive projects for a while now, revealing “The first offering that will be coming out later this year is not something set in Exandria. It’s not Critical Role IP, though those projects are coming. We’ll have more information on that this summer.”
The panel ended with a fan question, wondering what’s the most frustrated the others had gotten with Mercer as DM and Bailey laughed, “I think the most frustrated with you was when I was pregnant and I couldn’t hit you and I just remember being so enraged.” When O’Brien said the only time he was frustrated with Mercer was when he doesn’t take a break, Willingham chimed in “I don’t get frustrated with you. Work forever!”
Jaffe then suggested to Mercer “You could be meaner sometimes. Like hit harder!” to which Mercer replied, “I’ll remember that!”
