After the incredible success of the The Legend of Vox Machina animated series adapting the first campaign of the Critical Role webseries, it didn’t come as a surprise for fans that Prime Video greenlit another series based on the second campaign, The Mighty Nein. Set twenty years after the events of Vox Machina, The Mighty Nein follows a group of fugitives and outcasts that must learn to work together to save the realm and stop reality itself from unraveling. Ahead of the release of the first season this week, we had the pleasure of chatting with showrunner Tasha Huo. During our conversation, Huo discussed how she was already entrenched as a fan of the Critical Role franchise and how she and the crew sought to make this series accessible to a wide audience.
Taimur Dar: I think it’s safe to say Critical Role as a franchise has grown tremendously since the group launched their first campaign over a decade ago. How familiar were you with the Critical Role and the second campaign before becoming involved in this project? Was it a passing familiarity or were you deep into it?
Tasha Huo: I was deep into it. I played D&D and my DM [Dungeon Master] said, “If you want to learn how to play, watch Critical Role.” I was hooked. I was well into the campaign. I think I was done by the time I was talking with Sam [Riegel], Travis [Willingham], and Matt [Mercer] about possibly coming onto the show. I binged it and it was a love of mine for sure.
Taimur Dar: Shared universes are fun but always a challenge. It’s always a question of how accessible you make it. The beauty of The Mighty Nein is you can watch it without having seen Vox Machina, but it still has those tidbits and Easter eggs for dedicated fans. Obviously, this is set in the same world as Vox Machina, but it still stands on its own. How was the coordination between the two productions and making Mighty Nein accessible to new viewers?
Tasha Huo: We absolutely wanted to make it accessible to people who had no idea what Critical Role is or never played D&D in their lives. It is just a show. [Laughs]. However, if you do play D&D or know what Critical Role is or have watched any of these campaigns, you’ll get a different or richer experience when you watch it. We definitely made the show so it’s accessible to everyone. As a fan of the Mighty Nein, this is my way to share my love of the show without forcing my friends to watch four hours every night. [Laughs]. It’s very accessible and that’s definitely a deliberate choice.
In terms of crossover between the campaigns, we have the beauty of having the actual cast who was in all the campaigns in the room with us. So if anything comes up we can have a Matt Mercer say, “Actually at this time during the Mighty Nein, this was also happening over here. Is there any way for us to lay in a hint of that or an Easter egg or something in the background?” We also had the blessing of all of our artists, at least most of them, who are huge fans of Mighty Nein as well. So they’d sometimes just surprise us with the art. We’d see the background and find an Easter Egg that wasn’t in the script.
Taimur Dar: I was listening to a podcast with a writer and director of film and television who was discussing how he approached each medium differently. Plot and character are two basic elements of storytelling that are important in each, but he felt that plot was the master of film whereas character dictates television. As someone who’s worked in both, I’m curious if you feel character does indeed drive television?
Tasha Huo: I would say my starting point for both film and TV is definitely character. And character informs the plot in either. However, I would agree with that filmmaker that in TV we get so much more space to tell the story that more character can come through. More beats can be dictated by character. This show in particular, I’m happy to say is one that is exactly that. It starts with characters. Our very first creative conversations were always about character, the arcs, and personal stories we want to show. We’ll take the plot and make sure it illuminates those characters in the best way. So yes, there is a more relaxed ability in a TV show.
The Mighty Nein premieres Wednesday, November 19 on Prime Video
