The Legend of Vox Machina (TLOVM) co-creator Sam Riegel commented on the status of the fifth and final season of the animated fantasy series. The Prime Video show is focused on adapting the first Dungeons & Dragons campaign by Critical Role, with the 100+ episode original story being truncated into four (soon to be five) seasons of animation. The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 is only the beginning of the end for the beloved animated series. Season 5 is confirmed to be the last one, and it will round out the final arc with the Whispered One. Just how long fans will have to wait to see the finale, though, is another question.
During an interview with The Direct for The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4, Sam Riegel (who both produces and voices Scanlan in the show) shared that the release date for The Legend of Vox Machina Season 5 is "up to the whims of television." Riegel tempered expectations, saying "producing a season of animated television takes a long time." He added that the scripts for TLOVM Season 5 were completed years ago, but "there's still more work to be done on other episodes:"
"We never know, it's up to the whims of television. You know, producing a season of animated television takes a long time. We wrote these episodes two and a half years ago, or something like that. So Season 5 is in the works. We have finished some episodes of it, there's still more work to be done on other episodes. Then when we finish, it has to be adapted into different languages, and subtitled, and dubbed, and shipped all over the world and stuff, so it just takes a lot of time."
Riegel assured that he hoped fans "won't have to wait super long" and said that "the payoff will be so worth it" when Season 5 arrives:
"I hope we won't have to wait super long, but I will tell you this: no matter how long the wait is, the payoff will be so worth it. Seasons 4 and 5 tell an incredible story, and I think we ended the series exactly how we wanted to."
For its first three seasons, The Legend of Vox Machina made a habit of annual releases. Season 1 came out in January 2022, and Season 2 followed in January 2023. Seasons 3 and 4 then set a precedent of 20-month gaps, with the third releasing in October 2024 and the fourth debuting in June 2026. If that continues, Season 5 might not be released for another 20 months, putting it sometime around February 2028.
That wait will be a tough one, particularly since Season 5 will be The Legend of Vox Machina's final season, and the ante has been significantly upped in Season 4 (particularly with the return of Delilah Briarwood). Hopefully, Riegel's comments that it won't be a "super long" wait mean TLOVM could debut sooner than 2028.
The Legend of Vox Machina was created by Critical Role founders Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, Laura Bailey, Ashley Johnson, Sam Riegel, Liam O'Brien, Matthew Mercer, and Taliesin Jaffe, all of whom reprise their roles from the campaign. The fantasy series follows the legendary adventuring party as they travel Exandria and protect it from the forces of evil.
The Legend of Vox Machina Season 5 Might Take Longer Than Expected
While creating animated television is no quick or easy feat, other factors could delay the debut of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 5.
The main one at play is that the Exandria universe has expanded since The Legend of Vox Machina debuted in 2022, and now Critical Role is juggling multiple animated shows with conflicting schedules.
The Mighty Nein debuted in November 2025, which adapts Critical Role's second campaign in a season with fewer episodes but longer ones. The Mighty Nein is produced by animation studio Titmouse, which also provides animation for The Legend of Vox Machina. So the studio has significantly more to work on now than it did a few years ago, which is undoubtedly widening the gap between seasons.
While this does mean The Legend of Vox Machina fans may be waiting a while to see how the series ends, it doesn't mean the landscape will be completely devoid of Critical Role content. The Mighty Nein Season 2 (which is confirmed) may, at this point, be further along in the process than Season 5 of TLOVM; it could release in between TLOVM seasons once again and give fans their animated Exandria fix within the next year or so.
