The Legend of Vox Machina (TLOVM) is entering its endgame. The animated adaptation of Critical Role's first Dungeons & Dragons campaign is coming into its final stretch as Season 4 of the Prime Video show puts its beloved heroes against the threat of the mysterious Whispered One. The series will officially end with Season 5, but Critical Role is dramatically raising the stakes in this penultimate season.
Cast members and producers Ashley Johnson (Pike), Travis Willingham (Grog), Marisha Ray (Keyleth), Taliesin Jaffe (Percy), Laura Bailey (Vex), Liam O'Brien (Vax), and Sam Riegel (Scanlan) spoke to The Direct about The Legend of Vox Machina's fourth season and how it ups the ante from previous seasons.
When Season 4 premieres on June 3, it finds Vox Machina in a new place following a time jump. Season 3 left the heroes parting ways, and the cast members revealed what happened to each of their characters during this period apart. O'Brien teased that Vax is "coming to accept this condition he has," which was set up in Season 3, while Willingham said that best friends, Pike and Grog, are dealing with "the vacuum that's left from everybody leaving."
Riegel hinted that the team's bard, Scanlan, is "somewhere else to be determined," but in his absence, a new character has joined Vox Machina. That character is Taryon Darrington, whom Riegel initially played as in the campaign, but Wayne Brady now takes over the role in the animated series. The group hinted that Taryon's arrival would "mix up" the dynamic, with Bailey teasing that he "steals the season" and is her "new favorite character."
As teased at San Diego Comic-Con in 2025, The Legend of Vox Machina includes the Cobalt Soul Affair, a dicey mission undertaken by the group at the archives of the Cobalt Soul (a group linked to The Mighty Nein). Ray and O'Brien paired up to write the episode, which injects the season with an exciting heist element. While admitting sorting out the specifics was tough, Ray said, "The end result ended up very much being worth the struggle."
Additionally, the cast threw out suggestions for other genres they'd like TLOVM to tackle, including "old school noir," and a "full musical episode," with Willingham adding that the team always tries to "push the envelope."
The Legend of Vox Machina is in A New Place In Season 4
“What Is Next for These Heroes, and Where Do They Find Their Sense of Value and Worth?”
- The Direct: "This season begins with a bit of a time jump, and the characters have spent some time apart. Could you tell me a bit about what each of your characters went through during that time jump, and where we find them at the beginning of Season 4?"
Sam Riegel: "Scanlan... he's off on his own with his daughter, somewhere else, to be determined, to be seen."
Liam O'Brien: "Vax is experiencing love in full, getting the whole experience traveling with Keyleth on her journey, and that is wonderful. And then [he's] also coming to accept this condition that he has, and living with that, and knowing that it is sort of like a ticking clock in the background, and trying to navigate both at the same time."
Laura Bailey: "Vex and Percy have discovered the beauty of domestic life. Vex is settling into a role within the city, and feeling comfortable and loved in a way that she never has before."
Taliesin Jaffe: "I would say Percy agrees almost wholeheartedly, except for that terrible little thing in the basement that is not a metaphor for his inability to truly rest and not think about the past at all times, definitely not."
Marisha Ray: "I think a lot with Keyleth, you're kind of seeing the culmination event of her Aramente. She had kind of, honestly, in a lot of seasons one, two, and three, with Vox Machina, was kind of deliberately putting off this journey, this sense of duty that was more or less thrust upon her. But I think it was having that time with Vox Machina that kind of gave her the confidence to be like, 'Alright, we did this, we saved Exandria once, now we're going to go and take a little bit of time for ourselves and get back to what we really set out on the road to do'. So you're now seeing that that final moment of her completing her Armente with the Water Ashari."
Ashley Johnson: "I feel like for Pike, what we deal with during this season, is her trying to figure out what is her purpose beyond healing people, beyond being in battle. I think it is also a testament to how hard it is to do self-care, to take time off, and to just try to recover from something, and turns out Pike is not good at it. She doesn't know how to do it. We find her in a pretty rough spot. I mean, she's with her best buddies, and I think that will carry her through, but there's something a little deeper going on with her, and she misses her family."
Travis Willingham: "I think, for Grog and Pike, we were the only ones that actually weren't going somewhere with a goal, you know? Keyleth and Vax were off with the Aramente. Vex and Percy went to Whitestone. Scanlan and Kaylie were doing their thing. Allura and Kima are busy being on a council, so I think Pike and Grog, we're like, well, I guess we'll see if there's anything that's needed over here. No? Ok, maybe we go to the next town, and we find some action along the way. There's not much action because it's peace time now... And I think for Grog that's great, because he just needs food, ale, and Pike, and that's kind of it. But, you know, in the vacuum that's left from everybody leaving, it kind of makes you go like, what is next for these heroes, and where do they find their sense of value and worth?"
Vox Machina Gains a New Member
"It’s a Really Fun Mix-up of the Dynamic of the Group..."
- The Direct: "We have Taryon Darrington's arrival this season. Could you tell me a bit about how Taryon impacts Vox Machina's dynamic, and also what Wayne Brady brought to the character?"
Sam Riegel: "It's a really fun mix-up of the dynamic of the group. The chemistry changes anytime you bring a new friend into a friend group. It's so fun to see how it changes people's relationships with each other. Some people like the new guy, some people hate the new guy, and it was really a great way of shaking up everybody, and sort of honing in on what they really wanted out of Season 4.
Wayne Brady is an incredible actor and an incredible comedian, and working with him was a dream come true. He's also a friend, and we're so happy that he wanted to play with us."
Laura Bailey: "[Wayne Brady] brought so much to the character. I mean, I fully believe that he steals the season, because every moment that he's in is wonderful and juicy, and he makes you laugh so hard, and also, there's so much depth to what he's doing. He's like my new favorite character."
Liam O'Brien: "What I love about Taryon in this season is Vox Machina really is spread to the winds. They're all in different places emotionally and mentally. And you see, when they get back together, they're not even entirely sure of each other in the way that they used to be, and it takes Tary's golden retriever-like passion and intensity to shove them back together again. So it all rests on Tary."
TLOVM Season 4 Raises the Bar With New Genres
“We Always Try and Push the Envelope...”
- The Direct: "Marisha, tell me a little bit about what it was like to write an episode with Liam, and particularly write the Cobalt Soul Affair episode that was so unique for Vox Machina?"
Marisha Ray: "I mean, Liam and I had both written episodes along with Sam and Travis in previous seasons, but we had been partnered up with other writers in the writers room, so co-writing it with Liam, who's obviously one of my best friends in the whole world, was such a blast. And we like fought for that one, we were like, 'let's write the heist, we want to write the heist', and then we got halfway into writing the heist and we were like, 'oh, this is hard.' But we had like napkin drawings and diagrams to try and figure out how the mechanics were gonna work. It was so much, but I think the end result ended up very much being worth the struggle."
- The Direct: "That was such a unique genre for the show to explore. I'm wondering if there are any other genres that you would love to see your characters be a part of in the future?"
Taliesin Jaffe: "Noir, full old school noir."
Sam Riegel: "We got a little musical action in this season, as well."
Liam O'Brien: "I wouldn't mind a full start-to-finish musical episode."
Laura Bailey: "We also have a horror movie element this season."
Travis Willingham: "We've talked about western episodes. We've talked about noir episodes. We've said some really crazy stuff, and usually we go to our partners over at Titmouse Animation, and they're like, 'Please, stop. You had us fighting five elemental dragons, and now there's a giant kraken. What is next?' And we usually tell them, and they're like, 'Please, we thought we were friends.' It's a whole thing.
But we always try and push the envelope, not just in terms of storytelling, but also, are we having fun with this show or not? There's just a certain level of what we would love to see in this sort of show, as well, and that's usually what we hit. But there are definitely things that we've had to say no to. An entire like puppet episode where everybody's got strings? That got cut."
The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 premieres on Prime Video on June 3.
