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As we near the end of Critical Role's Mighty Nein season 1 - I know, doesn't it feel like we just started? - Critters across the planet are finally wrapping our heads around one of the biggest questions that we had coming into the show. That is: What parts of Critical Role's deeply beloved Campaign 2 are getting cut to fit its animated adaptation's runtime? There are a ton of answers to that, but as we head toward this season's finale, it's also worth remembering that the Mighty Nein is home to plot that we didn't see in Campaign 2, as Matt Mercer himself will explain.

Mercer as well as some of the other OG Rolers recently spoke with Business Insider about the changes between the actual play Campaign 2 and the Titmouse-animated Mighty Nein, and to our slight surprise, he revealed that there were things in the latter that actually never made it into the former. Now to be fair, we did have some idea that the role of the Volstrucker would be expanded upon in the animated series, but we didn't know it would involve creating "a whole other plot line," as CR's Sam Riegel (who plays Nott the Brave) tells it. 

But according to the interview, it wasn't only the Volstrucker that had a few previously-unknown details revealed for TV - it was also Mercer's own character, the much beloved hotboi Essek Thelyss.

"We had the opportunity," explained Mercer, "To dig in with the writer's rooms and the rest of the creative team to collaborate on how best to see that now fleshed out and shown and explored with the audience through this animated series [...] So there weren't too many changes. A lot of it was mainly just taking what was there or things that were sitting in my head and going, 'Alright, now we get to actually show this. That's really cool and exciting. Let's do it.'"

So will MIghty Nein continue to show us more Exandrian history that didn't make it into Campaign 2? We can't be sure. One thing we can be sure of, though, is that even before season 1 is over, the wait for season 2 is already agonizing.

The Mighty Nein is streaming on Prime Video now.

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.