Exandria’s favorite heroes will finally roll for initiative once more next week with the premiere of The Legend of Vox Machina Season 3 on Prime Video. Anticipation has been running high for the party’s return after Season 2 began adapting the fan-favorite Chroma Conclave arc from the original Critical Role campaign, with the finale bringing about the death of the Hope Devourer, Umbrasyl. Vox Machina’s eyes now turn to Thordak, the Cinder King, though the journey will send them literally to Hell and test their relationships more than ever before. For Travis Willingham, Marisha Ray, and Liam O’Brien, this will be a consequential adventure exploring their fears and empathy while building on everything we’ve learned about their characters over the past two seasons.
Ahead of the premiere, Collider’s Perri Nemiroff spoke to the trio of stars at Fantastic Fest to learn more about where Season 3 is heading for the lovable band of misfits. Last month’s trailer teased a season of high-stakes demon-slaying action, albeit not without tragedy and personal pressures affecting every member. The events of their previous adventures begin to weigh heavily on Vox Machina’s mindset ahead of their greatest challenge yet, and that’s without considering the complicated situation they’re in now, with Thordak seemingly untouchable and the Chroma Conclave dragon Raishan becoming an unlikely ally who wants to take down the Cinder King for her own reasons.
In the case of the barbarian Grog, Willingham said that Season 3 will be about considering his role in the group after confronting his brutal past in the Herd of Storms with his uncle Kevdak in Season 2. He’s realized his power lies with his found family, and he’ll fully embrace his empathy as the rock of the group, especially looking out for the “little guys,” including his close friends Pike and Scanlan.
“I think for me, Grog in Season 2 had a big backstory reveal, so we got to see where he came from, what his real family was like, and the circumstances that ended up pushing him towards his found family, which is Pike and Wilhand, and then obviously the rest of Vox Machina after that. But you got to see what makes him tick. He’s this huge, overpowered, muscled warrior who could just smash through things with little regard for the smaller things in life, and I think for him, it’s really important to think about the little guy and to put himself in the shoes of other people.
That’s empathy you’re not really expecting from that character
, and so in Season 3, we get to see that a little bit more. He’s taking care of ‘the littles,’ as it were, the Pikes and Scanlans of the group. It’s nice to see where that goes and how he doesn’t just smash things but also looks to mend them within the group, too.”
Vox Machina’s Members Will Face Their Fears in Season 3
Keyleth’s fears become manifest during the Season 3 trailer as we see a vision of her being the last surviving member of Vox Machina. In general, she fears death and what could happen to her companions during the fight against the rest of the Chroma Conclave. All indications are that learning to take chances and open up about her feelings with Vax will also be especially vital to her arc. Beyond just Keyleth, Ray shared that Season 3 is finally a chance for Vox Machina to face what haunts them most after spending most of the last two seasons simply throwing those worries on the back burner. It sets up a deeply heartfelt exploration of the party members that pays off many of the little conversations they have throughout the series.
“I’d say there’s a lot of hints to some of the deeper fears of all of the party members in the first couple of seasons, but a lot of times there are little nods or little one-off conversations of, like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got this fear, but I don’t have time to deal with that now.’ And I think we were able to kind of take time to confront a lot of those fears with a lot of the characters in Season 3 in a really meaningful way, and sometimes very literally — Episode 7. [Laughs]”
Last but not least, O’Brien promises a specific continuation of a plot point introduced in Season 2 – the Matron of Ravens. After Vex is killed by a trap, Vax pledges his life in return for her resurrection and later commits to becoming the Matron’s champion, guarding the sanctity of life and death. His fate is sealed, but she’ll watch over him for the rest of his time on the mortal plane, becoming an ever-present part of his story until the series ends. Even if Matt Mercer and the rest of the team aren’t afraid to shake things up from how events play out compared to Critical Role, Season 3 and beyond will track Vax’s ever-changing relationship with the Raven Queen and his role as her devotee:
“In Season 2, just like in the campaign, Vax, somewhat by accident, hitches his wagon to the god of death in our world, and I think everything that happens after in that season and for the entire rest of the story… In that episode, he asks, to the air, ‘What did I just do?’ And everything afterward is figuring out where on the timeline and what his relationship with this goddess of death is. Whether he is resisting it, embracing it, afraid of it, or seeing its value change with every passing season.”
All of Season 3’s key party members will be back to continue Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, and Sam Riegel back alongside Willingham, Ray, O’Brien, and Mercer. New episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina will begin airing on October 3 on Prime Video. Stay tuned here at Collider for updates ahead of its debut.
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