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Critical Role fans were no doubt thrilled to hear about one of the major differences between the animated adaptation of The Legend of Vox Machina and the upcoming Mighty Nein - the shows' lengths. Vox Machina, which adapted the first campaign in the D&D liveplay series, consists of 22-minute episodes, while Mighty Nein, which adapts its second campaign, will feature episodes of 44 minutes. And thanks to cast members Laura Bailey and Travis Willingham, we now know why.

Both Bailey and Willingham, who've been with Critical Role since its inception, were in attendance at a GalaxyCon San Jose 2025 panel, where they were taking questions from critters in the audience. At one point during the Q&A, an attending fan asked about why the minute-count was changing between the two animated shows that bore the Critical Role name, and the voice actors (who will be reprising their roles as Jester and Fjord, respectively) were only happy to explain. 

"What we ran into on Legend of Vox Machina," began Willingham, "Was in that 22-minute format. We were trying to cram so much stuff into these twelve-episode seasons. And because of that, a lot of the feedback that we got was like, 'Man, the pace is so fast. I wish it would just take a breath.' And we feel the same way. But we're also trying to accordion so much stuff into a season, right?"

"We did the math one time," the Grog Strongjaw actor continued, "And it was somewhere between uh squishing 28 to 32 hours [of gameplay] down into twelve, 22-minute episodes per season. Which is crazy! It's almost impossible. But going 44-minutes meant we have a little bit more road, a little more runway. Each season has more time total to be able to tell those stories. And it was important to us to start from an origin perspective for Mighty Nein. In jumping into all the character stories, it was really fun to sit with each of us and go like, 'Okay, how do we want to start? What do we want to show?'" 

Speaking of her experience in the Might Nein writers' room, Bailey reported "We got to say, 'These are the moments that are really important to us. Because we'd already established Vox Machina, with Mighty Nein we were able to take a little bit more liberty with how we wanted to approach showing and introducing each character, right? So yeah, it was it was getting to say 'These are the things I really want to be seen for Jester or any of the other characters. These are the moments I don't want to lose, and also these are the moments that can shift a little bit, because it still showcases at the core what that moment was supposed to be"

"Sometimes in shows where the group starts together in the first episode," Willingham jumped back in, "You identify them as a group instead of individuals. [...] If you get into a fantasy show where there are epic action sequences and things are happening to them, we found as an audience that you you have to have a reason that you care about those individuals, right? Like, why do I care if this happens to the blue-skinned tieflng?"

"Because she's cute as hell," Bailey interjected, in-character as the tiefling in question, Mighty Nein's Jester. "That's why."

The Legend of Vox Machina is streaming on Prime Video now. The Mighty Nein season 1 will debut on November 19.

From the lands of Exandria to your very own smartscreens, Popverse has everything you need to know about the TTRPG phenomenon that is Critical Role. Here you'll find:

• Popverse's Critical Role watch order
• An interview with GM Brennan Lee Mulligan
• The cast's appearance at C2E2 '25

...and more. Roll initiative, player. Adventure awaits.