“The Mighty Nein” expands the world of Exandria beyond what was introduced in “The Legend of Vox Machina.” Set twenty years after the first animated series and on a different continent, the world has grown to include new and exciting cultures, conflicts, and more. This is shown through the tonal difference from “Vox Machina,” the introduction of the Kryn Dynasty, and even the portrayal of magic.

An unexpected element that ties together “The Legend of Vox Machina” and “The Mighty Nein” is the introduction of “EXU: Calamity.” Calamity is one of the most important and devastating pieces of Exandria’s history. “The Mighty Nein” ties in “EXU: Calamity” in a way that was never a part of the original campaign. But it perfectly encapsulates how Critical Role is expanding Exandria through nuanced, intelligent details as well as monumental moments.

In an exclusive interview with Temple of Geek, Tasha Huo discusses expanding the world of Exandria in animation. She shared her excitement about working with Lou Wilson and bringing in elements of Calamity. Huo also breaks down the different visuals of magic in “The Mighty Nein” compared to “The Legend of Vox Machina.”

Critical Role Continues To Incorporate Calamity Into Animation

The Calamity was a major event and era in Exandria’s history. The “EXU: Calamity” trilogy explored impactful moments throughout this era, beginning with the start of this cataclysmic world-altering event. Zerxus, voiced by Luis Carazo, played a role in “The Legend of Vox Machina.” Now, another member of the Ring of Brass, Nydas, voiced by Lou Wilson, has made an appearance in “The Mighty Nein.” Huo reveals what inspired this cameo.

Tasha Huo:

“Yeah, I lost my mind too, because we were just coming up with the episode on its own, not even really thinking about Calamity at all. We kind of knew as much as we could bring in anything from [campaign] three or anything from “Calamity” or anything from Vox, we would, but that’s not the first thing in our minds, right? And then we get to this episode where we need a pirate, and it just was—it was only obvious.

It suddenly just all clicked and made sense of what they would be going after and why they’d be going after it. And it’s suddenly this kind of MacGuffin storyline of what all the characters need to go after suddenly had personality. Specificity because of this larger Critical Role universe, which was very cool to get to do. It was so fun, and to bring Lou [Wilson] in so I get to, like, embody that character. Yeah, that’s great.”

Critical Role has flawlessly integrated Calamity into the animated shows. The events of Calamity occurred centuries before “The Legend of Vox Machina” and “The Mighty Nein.” Hopefully introducing these characters and this era points to Critical Role developing a Calamity movie or series for the future. This could be the perfect way to expand the world of Exandria with stories set in different eras.

The Mighty Nein Expands The World Of Exandria Through Magic

Magic is a hugely important aspect of “The Mighty Nein.” From Dunamancy to the component-based magic used by wizards and Jester’s more whimsical cleric magic. While magic plays a key role in “The Legend of Vox Machina,” the visuals of magic in “The Mighty Nein” are visceral and engaging. It is notably different from the magic in the first animated series while still feeling of the world of Exandria. Huo explains how they approached crafting the magic of the animated series.

Tasha Huo:

“That was a huge ongoing conversation that we had from just in the writer’s room bouncing ideas all the way through production and design and just even in post, just trying to narrow in on what different things sound like versus something else. And you’re right, we also have Vox Machina to consider, which takes place in the same world. And so, some of some sounds and some things that you see are actually very simple; it’s not taken directly from “The Legend of Vox Machina” [and] brought here so that there is a sense of fluidity and sort of a unified feeling to the world.

One of the things I love the most about how they play D&D in Campaign Two and onward is the specificity of their magic and how, you know, when I play D&D, I always have an arcane focus so I don’t have to deal with the bullshit components. And as a DM, I always ask my players, Do you want to play using components? Do you want that to matter? And nobody ever says yes; nobody wants to play with components. So, it was really fun to see them have to use components for their magic because, as a writer, this is something that we love: limitations.

So that especially when you have a show of people who are very powerful, where magic is a thing, and you don’t want them to just be able to do whatever the hell they want at any point with their magic, you want to have limitations; you want them, whether it’s getting tired because you’ve used too much magic, you’ve run out of magic, or that kind of magic, or now you don’t have any components, or you skip steps, if you’re Caleb, like all of these things are really, really helpful to just make the world feel real and make it feel like it has consequences.

That’s something else that I love in fantasy: the more real it feels, the more it feels like, “Oh, this is an actual place that I could go to,” the better. That’s how I like my fantasy. And so, I think component magic and separating their magic to be individual to who they are helps to do that. But also, as you kind of said earlier, every character gets their magic from a different source, right? There’s a God, there is whatever’s going on with Fjord, and there is the book magic with Caleb, right? So, getting to separate that was really fun, really hard, but I think ultimately, like, well worth it.”

The casting of “The Mighty Nein” skillfully found the perfect voices to bring each character to life. Lucy Liu as the Bright Queen, Anika Noni Rose as Marion Lavorre, Mark Strong as Trent Ikithon, Nathan Fillion as The Gentleman, and Ming-Na Wen as Dairon. Each of the actors brought characters crafted to life by Matt Mercer seamlessly. Huo shares how they know what they are looking for in a character’s voice and how Mercer lays the foundation for finding the voice and personality.

Tasha Huo:

It helps that Matt did such a great job, but obviously so many characters are so different from that. But what Matt’s very good at is creating an essence for a character, right? So, I think we all knew who these characters were fundamentally as we went to actors. And once they got the part and we sat with them and explained to them who they were, not only in this moment or in the scene but just globally in the show, they also understood what the intent of the character was. So, I struggled to think of any incident where we really had to find a character’s voice, particularly with these mains.

Any of the sort of side characters that you’re talking about, because they kind of just knew who they were as they came in, probably because of these bigger conversations. And we have 600,000 hours of content of this; they’re talking and interacting. So, it was easy for us, I think, to convey, “You are this now; run with it.” And yeah, it was great. It was; I think we were so lucky with the cast that we got because you’re exactly right. They feel like they just belong there. That’s just, of course, that’s their voice.

The first season of “The Mighty Nein” is available to watch on Prime Video now.