Critical Role’s Mighty Nein animated series on the way at Amazon

The Mighty Nein is on the way to Amazon Prime Video in a new animated series. The announcement, made Wednesday, heralds a second TV show based on the escapades of the Critical Role actual-play troupe. That’s the same team behind The Legend of Vox Machina, now in its second season, and the Mighty Nein series will also feature work by the same animation studio that handles The Legend of Vox Machina, Titmouse. And that’s not all: Amazon has also locked in a multiyear exclusive TV and first-look film deal.

The Mighty Nein is the name of the adventuring party in Critical Role’s second Dungeons & Dragons actual-play series, which ran for 141 episodes on Twitch and YouTube from January 2018 to June 2021, totaling roughly 560 hours of streaming content. It tells the story of a group of less-than-upright would-be heroes — Caleb Widogast, Veth “Nott the Brave” Brenatto, Jester Lavorre, Fjord, Beauregard Lionett, Mollymauk Tealeaf, and Yasha Nydoorin, among others.

“Mighty Nein follows a group of criminals and misfits,” Amazon said in a news release, “who are the only ones that can prevent the kingdom from plunging into chaos when an arcane artifact capable of reshaping reality falls into the wrong hands.”

An interesting twist here is that Critical Role will handle its own production through a company called Metapigeon, which is an in-joke about out-of-character table talk that fans of the series will surely recognize. Fans should expect to hear the voice talents of all their favorite cast members, including Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Liam O’Brien, Matthew Mercer, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham.

This is not the first time that The Mighty Nein has had an expression other than the original actual-play series. Wizards of the Coast published a book on its setting in 2020 titled Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. There are also multiple comic books from Dark Horse and several novelizations. If a movie deal comes through, it also won’t be its first time in theaters. Critical Role has offered a series of live actual-play sessions simulcast in movie theaters for years now.