Critical Role has proven that even when a campaign ends, the stories of those characters are far from over. Vox Machina and Mighty Nein have been a part of many stories beyond the scope of the actual campaign. Through comics, novels, one-shots, and the animated adaptations. While Bells Hells’ story only wrapped up this year, they’ve already touched on their tales beyond Campaign 3.
The Chicago and Australia live shows portrayed adventures after the events of the Campaign. Sam Riegel’s new comic, “Critical Role: Smiley Day!” brought a new Bells Hells adventure to the pages starring FCG. In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Rigel reflected on returning to the character of FCG. He even shared that there is more he’d like to explore about the kindhearted robot.
Revisiting FCG In “Critical Role: Smiley Day!”
FCG was a beloved character in Campaign 3. Their kindness and willingness to help their friends proved their greatest strength. Sadly, however, their story was cut short in the wake of a great sacrifice. “Critical Role: Smiley Day!” was an opportunity for Riegel to revisit the character for an all-new adventure. Riegel shared his favorite part of writing from the perspective of FCG.
Sam Riegel:
“Yeah, Fresh Cut Grass is endlessly interesting to me because they never really learned who they were. That was their main goal in Critical Role. In general, it was just to figure out who they are, how they belong, and what their purpose is. I think in telling their story in our Critical Role show, Fresh Cut Grass realized that maybe they don’t need an official purpose, and maybe they don’t need to know exactly who they are.
That none of us really know those things, that just doing their best is probably good enough, and that’s all we can hope for. But that said, there’s still a lot of mysteries about Fresh Cut Grass, their origins, what would have happened to them had they been able to continue on. I would love to explore more of those things in other media for sure.”
Sam Riegel Promises “You Have Not Seen The Last Of Bells Hells”
While Critical Role is stepping away from Exandria with Campaign 4, they’ve made it clear that they aren’t done with that world. This likely means that Bells Hells will return for more adventures. This could be on the page like “Critical Role: Smiley Day!” Through one-shots, as was shown in the Australia live show. And hopefully through animation, following in the footsteps of “The Legend of Vox Machina” and “Mighty Nein.” Riegel did reveal that they’ve talked about adapting the campaign but affirmed, “You have not seen the last of Bells Hells.”
Sam Riegel
The Bells Hells campaign, we’ve talked about different ways of adapting it into other media. It’s a hard one because not only does it involve Bells Hells, but it involves Vox Machina, it involves Mighty Nein, it involves a moon, and it’s tricky. Also, the characters are so wild and different from each other. But yeah, for sure. We’re planning all sorts of different spin-offs and examinations of those characters and what they were doing before and what they were doing after. You have not seen the last of Bells Hells, for sure.
It’s exciting to know that Critical Role is looking at how Bells Hells can be delved into further. While animation is a definite possibility, especially in the wake of “The Legend of Vox Machina” and “Mighty Nein,” they seem to be looking at other avenues as well. During the interview Riegel teased, “No spoilers, we’re talking about something regarding Braius, the character I played at the end of Campaign 3. So we’ll see how that goes.”
Braius was only briefly a part of the campaign, and like FCG, there are many aspects of his life that remain a mystery. Riegel has the opportunity to further flesh out both of these characters following “Critical Role: Smiley Day!” Hopefully Braius’ story is told beyond the events of Campaign 3, and Bells Hells as a whole has the chance to star in new adventures across mediums.
“Critical Role: Smiley Day!” will hit shelves September 30. It is available for pre-order now.
