It’s not a secret to say that Season 3 of The Legend of Vox Machina goes deep — deep into world-building lore, deep into emotional whiplash, deep into places like Hell (as teased in the official trailer) — and of course, deep into those growing connections between the intrepid adventurers.
“It’s beautiful and tragic to get to see these relationships as they start,” teases Laura Bailey, who plays half-elf-ranger Vex’ahlia. Adds Liam O’Brien, who plays Vex’s rogue brother Vax’ildan, “We get to share the story with even more people. All our hundreds of hours at the table is a lot to go through — we love doing it, and people have loved watching it, but it’s nice that we get to spin a story for even more people to story that we loved. All of us have been fans of animation our entire lives, so to get to fuse our story with another thing we love so, so much is such a joy and a blessing and a challenge.”
Ahead of the upcoming premiere (three episodes debut October 3rd on Prime Video), TV Insider sat down exclusively with Bailey, O’Brien, Taliesin Jaffe (gunslinger Percy), and Marisha Ray (half-elf druid Keyleth of the Air Ashari) to discuss everything from character evolution to why Trinket the bear is the most expensive character to animate.
Read on for more in-depth teases about Season 3 — and feast your eyes on a new exclusive image from Season 3 featuring the team on the move as they continue to search for the vestiges that will help them defeat the dragons who threaten to end the world. (Wait…where’s Scanlan?!)
On expanding the world of Exandria and bringing in bigger worlds to a story that once existed in a smaller vacuum of a universe:
Laura Bailey: I love that we have these little easter eggs for fans that have watched all of the campaigns in live play, that they’ll really get to have those mouth-opening, jaw-dropping moments of oh my gosh, I know that. I know what they’re talking about right here. And if you don’t know, then it doesn’t take away anything from the show. It’s still just a really cool character that you get to see.
Marisha Ray: What’s wild about Legend of Vox Machina and really, like, everything with Exandria and Critical Role in general, is that it’s always kind of developing and morphing in real-time. So there was a lot of stuff this season that was written, and then things would happen in our current campaigns or in our Calamity miniseries, and we’d be like, well, probably should go back and add that in, or we should switch that, or this gives us a good opportunity to introduce these things. A lot of what you see in this season was kind of happening in tandem with what was being developed in Exandria and Critical Role in general. So it’s a very unique situation to be in.
RelatedAll the Spoilers for ‘Legend of Vox Machina’ in Season 3 Opening Credits
Liam O’Brien: It’s very similar to how we play the table, really, because we play for hours, weeks, months, and years as these characters and in this world. And oftentimes, we will invent something that informs something that happened before the stream story even began. So really, the longer Exandria exists and these characters exist, the more the threading weaves together and becomes more elaborate, and all those 1000 points of light start to connect. A favorite joke, as we’re working on the seasons of the show, is to reach a point go, oh, wait a minute, this lines up with that thing that happened all the way back there. We’re geniuses! So it’s just the joy of getting to, like, find little connections and then coax them along and make them stronger and just makes the world live and breathe more.
Ray: On the flip side of that, expanding the story with other storytellers and creators and players that we have brought into the table. I feel like we’ve been able to do that more this season, and obviously looking to do that more in subsequent seasons as well. But you know, coming to your point of intertwining things that happen at the table and spin-off series and being able to share the stage with some of the incredibly talented actors that we have brought in, that’s been really exciting this season, particularly. More where that came from for sure.
On specific things in their characters’ evolution that they wanted to make sure they showcased in Season 3:
Bailey: I wanted there to be a payoff for Vex’s coldness. And I remember saying when we were writing the first seasons and everything that I’m PL with her coming across as a total bitch in this first season if it pays off in the end and you get to see the reason for her coldness and that it doesn’t come from just absolutely being heartless. It comes from protecting herself. And I love that we’re able to start diving into that.
On if there’s anything from the Chroma Conclave arc that they didn’t get to tackle in Season 3, but they wish they did:
Taliesin Jaffe: Oftentimes, we’ll look at something we’re doing and go maybe later. Or it doesn’t work right now but who knows down the line.
Bailey: I mean, right from the get-go, we said all of the moments that we all wanted, collectively, to be able to play out and see in the show. And I think [EPs] Travis [Willingham, Grog] and Sam [Riegel, Scanlan] and all of the writers in the room really did an excellent job of honoring all of those moments.
On the challenge of playing characters who have relationships with each other when they’ve already lived and experienced the endgame of their story:
Bailey: As an actor, you never want to play the end, right? So maybe there’s more challenge to it because you still want to leave the audience guessing—all those people that haven’t seen the live play, you know, I don’t want them to know where the show goes, and I think we do a great job in the series. There are new things that happen and it does keep it surprising and fun and shocking and beautiful for fans that have already seen it and already know what’s going to happen.
Jaffe: It’s such a good balance of honoring the story and surprising at the same time.
On why Trinket, Vex’s loyal bear companion, is the most expensive part of the show to animate:
Bailey: Because he’s the most expensive! I had to come to terms with it, because at first, I was like, You’re not putting him in these episodes because you’re doing it to spite me! And then they had to explain, no, it is, like, they won’t do the show anymore. If Trinket is in every episode, nobody will animate it. But we make it work and he’s still the best boy we know. And it works out in the story.
On the continued challenge of adapting 115 episodes (and countless hours) of in-game storytelling into 12 half-hour episodes per season:
O’Brien: There’s the perennial problem of condensing so, so, so much into such a finite amount of space. And there are moments that we love, and I love, for all the characters in our story, that the time that we had to breathe and find it, we had to work really hard to make their journeys feel lived in and believed in. And sometimes that meant splitting the party in ways that they weren’t before, removing things entirely, or giving a single thing double purpose. You know that at the end of season three, Character X needs to be in this headspace and Character Y needs to be in that headspace. So we have this many episodes to chart their way to being there when we might have had, you know, 100 hours to do that prior.
Ray: I think we did a pretty good job at setting expectations in the first few seasons and I think we did a pretty good job dashing every single one of those expectations against the rocks in this season. And I think the audience will like that. I think it’s going to keep them on their toes. Obviously, there is, you know, a little saying about when you make assumptions, so hopefully people don’t feel like an ass. But I think even just from what we’ve seen from ourselves and seen from engineers in mixing sessions, or, you know, friends who have gotten sneak peeks. You know, everyone’s heads are just like…their minds are blown watching a lot of these episodes. I think it’s going to definitely send people for a loop.
The Legend of Vox Machina, Season 3 Premiere, October 3, Prime Video
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