Critical Role took over Anime NYC on Sunday, August 25, enthralling a full panel of Critters with a Fireside Chat Q&A. The panel included Matthew Mercer, Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Liam O’Brien, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Taliesin Jaffe, and Travis Willingham.

Critical Role Breaking News Announced

With the Critical Role nearing its 10th anniversary, the cast announced at their Anime NYC panel that new and exciting things will be popping up on their streaming service, Beacon, in the coming months. 

The cast announced that season three of The Legend of Vox Machina will premiere on Prime Video on October 3rd, with The Mighty Nein premiering “some time” after that. The cast also reminded fans that 2025 marks the 10th anniversary of Critical Role. Marisha Ray urged Critters to sign up for the newsletter for updates on the “year-long celebration.” 

Marisha says to sign up for the newsletter and updates because they’re planning a year long celebration for the tenth anniversary, including “a lot of live shows” that planned to be announced soon. 👀 #criticalrole #animenyc

— Temple of Geek (@Templeofgeek) August 25, 2024

Critical Role Cast Answers Beacon Questions on Anime NYC Panel

The panel began with the cast answering a few questions before moving on to questions submitted by fan via Beacon. For those new to Beacon, it is an ad-free streaming service with exclusive Critical Role series content. Fans also gain access to VODs and podcasts moments after airing, news, and live event pre-sales.

The first question posed to the cast asked about the different processes behind recording anime versus an animated series like The Legend of Vox Machina.

Travis: With anime, you have a line, a physical performance, and a number of things that inform your read. For Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein, it’s a blank slate. We’re also responsible for a lot of the dialogue ourselves. It can also throw it out of the window at any time. It’s basically these maniacs in a small room, which shouldn’t be legal. So anything and everything can happen […] If you can do anime dubbing, then you can do the real thing.

Taliesin: The group setting is also nice. Because in anime, you’re very solitary. It’s just you in a booth and with your nerves as opposed to looking at everybody else in there, who are also nervous. During COVID, we had to break up some of the early sessions, and we were used to being able to piecemeal our performances together because we were all in the room.

Marisha: We recorded the first episode all together and then the pandemic hit. I don’t think we were able to get back in a room together until season two. It’s really such a privilege to be able to work off of each other, which you don’t often get afforded. 

Liam: You do use a lot of anime techniques and stuff when we dub in, like the fighting stuff [and] magic stuff.

Laura: It’s kind of a fun competition because we’ll have to do pickups to pictures in the room with the whole cast. And then it’s like, who can do it the quickest to picture, you know?

Travis: There is a competition of reactions, especially if we go around the room and it’s like we need everyone to die by fire death or everybody fall from a large ledge. Whoever starts first, it always ramps up to 10 by whoever is left.

Liam: It’s one of our times to laugh at each other in those records.

Laura Bailey, who voices Tohru Honda in the Fruits Baskets and Jester Lavorre in Critical Role, was asked what would happen if both of her characters switched places with one another. Laura’s takeaway was that if the Somas from Fruits Baskets were in Critical Role, “everyone would be dead.”

Campaign 3 Questions for the Critical Role cast

If you are not caught up on Critical Role, there are spoilers below.

With the culmination of campaign 3 on the horizon, the questions pivoted toward the conversation around the protagonists, Bell’s Hells.

Ashton Greymoore with Taliesin Jaffe

Taliesin Jaffe’s character in campaign 3, Ashton Greymoore, suffers from chronic pain. An audience member asked Taliesin if he expected fans who also suffer from chronic pain to relate to Ashton. Taliesin explained that he never anticipated the reaction he received from fans. He then revealed that he also suffers from chronic pain. Taliesin further explained that due to Ashton’s backstory, it made sense for him to have a disability.

Marisha Ray Talks Keyleth’s Growth in The Legend of Vox Machima

Marisha Ray, who plays Keyleth in both Critical Role and the animate series The Legend of Vox Machina was asked about her opinion on watching Keyleth grow.

Question: The animated version of “I Have Walked Through Fire” is just as powerful but very different from the original. Can you tell us about making that change and keeping the meaning that helps Keyleth grow?

Marisha: Man, such a good episode. Of course, with the entire adaptation of Legend of Vox Machina as well as Mighty Nein, you can’t fit everything. You can’t fit all the characters or all the moments. We tried to find clever ways to truncate and combine. So, of course, Patrick Rothuss’s character Kerr was such a big moment. There wasn’t room in the series to incorporate him in a meaningful way. I was just really stoked with what came out of the writer’s room and how that final product ended up, and I’ve been really kind of seeing the literal visual representation of that moment. Everything at the table in the campaign is all make-believe in all of our heads. So being able to see it was super incredible, and it makes me cry every time I rewatch it.

Ashley Johnson on Fearne’s Updated Outfit

Continuing along the line of growth of the female charactes in Critical Role, Ashley Johnson was asked her character, Fearne Calloway. Specifically, Fearne’s outfit shifted to one more fit for a battle and adventuring.

Ashley: In thinking of where we were going, what we were doing, and some of the stuff that Fearne wears, it just isn’t practical. Obviously, this is fantasy, and we can make everything work, but – I was the last kid in my family, so I had a lot of hand-me-downs. I still have a lot of my dad’s shirts, and there’s something that I like about wearing people’s clothes that are important to me. That sounds so weird. But that’s also why I wanted to take FCG’s jacket. It’s some part of being close to somebody, and it feels like a hug, I guess?

I just wanted something a little more practical, still Fearne, still fashion. It’s hard to go on the journey that we’ve been going on and not to take it in, feel a little more grounded, and have the seriousness of the situation. I think Fearne’s ready to get down and dirty, so the clothes are like the last thought for her now. Being flashy and Fearny, it’s still there a little bit.

“I think Fern is ready to get down and dirty.” -Ashley Johnson #criticalrole #animenyc

— Temple of Geek (@Templeofgeek) August 25, 2024

Audience Questions

After Beacon questions were answer, audience members were invited to step up to the microphone and ask the cast their own questions.

Matt Mercer Describes His Relationship and Goals with D&D

The first question was directed to the Dungeon Master himself, Matt Mercer. Matt is known for crafting the world in which these fantastical stories can be told and leaving fans wanting more of his unique storytelling. Matt describes his history with Dungeons and Dragons as dating back to his high school days with a dream to always have a consistent group of players.

Matt: I could show their characters living on and being affected and affecting them in their current story. And as many of you who play many RPGs out there know, it’s hard to have consistent groups for that long. So, I had this opportunity, and I was not going to waste it. 

And now that I have the chance, I’m cherishing it immensely, and it’s kind of my gift to them to be like, “Hey, you changed this world. You helped forge it and build where it’s gone. Now you get to see the effects of that and now join with your previous selves in a weird soup of your own creation.

Sam Riegel Provides the Comic Relief

One particular audience member addressed a question to Sam Riegel, asking whether or not he was familiar with a viral shirt featuring Matt Mercer as Hozier. Without so much as a word, Sam gave the perfect response.

Question for Sam: Have you seen the Matt Mercer Hozier photo? Sam pulls open his button up to reveal a photoshop picture of Matt on his t-shirt. 🤣 #criticalrole #animenyc

— Temple of Geek (@Templeofgeek) August 25, 2024

Matt Mercer Offers Advice on the Balance of Playing Multiple NPCs

As Dungeon Master, Matt creates rich NPCs and gives voice and life to each and every one of them. As a single person, that is a hefty task. One audience member asked Matt how he manages to get into the mindset of these different characters .

Matt: Harness in your psychosis helps. Whenever I break down NPCs, whether initially creating them or preparing for a session where they might appear, I have a very quick series of single-word notes to remind me of their vocal timber texture or any accents, dialects, or expectations they might have. As well as a quick breakdown of their mood and vibe, as well as a few important story notes. So I could be glancing down as the players are talking of possibly being close to that (character), or they’re starting to discuss talking to this individual.

As a performer, when you’re creating your personification of a character, you have to build out the world of what they’re living and what they’re going through in advance so you can kind of step into that in a comfortable way. A lot of that is goal-oriented: what are these characters’ goals? Goals will drive their decision-making and their reactions to those around them. So, even just a quick, succinct question to yourself. When you jump into those characters, what is their goal in this moment? Are they trying to gain friendships? Or are they trying to gain allies? Are they trying to gain access to something, someone, or someplace? Are they trying to get away? And not be noticed? Just that one singular goal will inform all of the ways they interact with people around them. Even just that little nugget could help you define a scene or define how you interpret that character.

Laura: To be able to sit at the table and watch him [Matt] have an argument between three or four characters is phenomenal. What was great was in the most recent episodes where it was four female characters, and each one was clearly defined. We knew who was speaking just by your mannerisms your body posture, and your timber.

Matt: Another addendum! Posture and physicality. Even carrying yourself differently for each character will have a different mood that you’ll instinctually slip into as you perform them. So consider that, too.

Special Guest Lenore Riegel, Sam Riegel’s Mother, Joins the Fan Q&A Line

Lenore: I happen to know that ever since you were a little boy, when you were ever asked what you wondering, where you grow up, you always said a Minotaur.

Sam: You’re the one who told me to follow my dreams. You took me to all those cow fields and let me stomp around in the dung. You inspired me to follow my dreams and become half-cow. I couldn’t have done anything without your support, and I love you so much.

Sam’s mom at the audience Q&A 💜 #criticalrole #animenyc @samriegel pic.twitter.com/ObCcmDUFsF

— Temple of Geek (@Templeofgeek) August 25, 2024

Wrapping up Campaign 3

Who would know better for what to expect at the climax of campaign 3 than the DM himself, Matt Mercer. When asked about whether or not audiences can expect an Avengers: Endgame style finale, Matt said:

Who knows! There are many forces at work in Exandria right now to tackle—many facets of this incredibly dangerous, world-altering series of events. We have a number of estranged alien entities from the red moon Ruidus that are seeking asylum or assimilation upon the realm. We have the possible long-sealed god-eating entity, Predathos, that is now pushing to be awakened. There are so many different things happening that require a lot of different powers and points of attention. All to facilitate this one little group of ass hats. Somehow, they have a very important responsibility thrust upon them. So, I guess we’ll have to see.