Amazon Orders Two Seasons of Critical Role’s Animated ‘Legend of Vox Machina’ Series

Critical Role’s upcoming animated series “The Legend of Vox Machina” — based on storylines in the group’s long-running role-playing show — has found a streaming home.

Amazon’s Prime Video nabbed exclusive streaming rights to two seasons of “Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina,” which originated as a fan-supported project on Kickstarter and set a record the most-funded TV or film project ever.

Following the Kickstarter campaign, CR had planned to produce 10 episodes of “Vox Machina.” Under the agreement with Amazon, Prime Video ordered an additional 14 episodes, for a total of 24 episodes across two seasons. (Currently, there’s no premiere date set for season 1 of the series but it’s targeted for late 2020.) In addition, Amazon Studios inked a first-look deal with Critical Role to develop new series to premiere exclusively on Prime Video worldwide.

“Critical Role blazed a new trail for original digital content, with fresh new voices and humor that earned devoted fans around the world, as evidenced by their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to work with the whole team to bring ‘The Legend of Vox Machina,’ and new Critical Role series, to our Prime Video customers.”

The deal builds on Critical Role’s use of Amazon-owned Twitch to broadcast their Dungeons & Dragons live role-playing show since 2015. Critical Role is represented by CAA, which helped broker the deal.

This past March, the Critical Role team set a target of raising $750,000 on Kickstarter for a 22-minute animated special. It blew past that goal in less than an hour and kept expanding the scope of the project as fans kept ponying up money. The group’s “Vox Machina” ultimately raised $11.39 million from 88,887 backers, who will receive various perks for their contributions starting in May 2020.

Critical Role had previously promised that all Kickstarter backers would get the first look at “The Legend of Vox Machina” — and that’s still the case, the group says. The project’s funders will still have an opportunity to watch the two-part special that kicks off the series before it hits Prime Video and will be able to access the first season for free. “We’re still working out all of the logistical details and should have an update around how all of this will work in late 2020,” Critical Role said in a message to Kickstarter backers posted Tuesday.

“Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina” follows a seven-member group of “second-rate, drunken adventurers,” according to CR’s description of the show, who are on a quest to save the realm from terrifying monsters and dark magical forces, only to discover they become a found family in the process. It’s based on the characters, settings and stories in Critical Role’s first campaign. The adult animated action-comedy series is being produced by animation house Titmouse.

“We were absolutely floored by the level of enthusiasm we received on the Kickstarter campaign, and now we can deliver exactly what the fans wanted, and more,” Critical Role’s Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham said in a joint statement. “Teaming with Prime Video to deliver the series to fans across the globe is exciting and surreal — and we’re psyched to be able to tell even more stories with not just one, but two 12-episode seasons!”

Chris Prynoski, Titmouse’s president and founder, added, “I’ve been wanting to make an animated show based on fantasy role playing games since I was 1st level. I’m overjoyed for Titmouse to join the Critical Role adventuring party to slay this beast alongside the mighty Amazon army!”

“Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina” stars the CR cast of Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham, who are reprising their roles. They will also serve as executive producers, alongside Brandon Auman (“Star Wars: Resistance”) and Chris Prynoski (“Metalocalypse”), with Sung Jin Ahn (“Niko and the Sword of Light”) joining as supervising director.