Critical Role Debuts New Entrance Video

By Christian Hoffer

Critical Role returned from a month-long hiatus yesterday and unveiled a brand new entrance video. The new entrance video, which can be viewed below, was animated by Minnow Mountain, an Emmy Award-winning studio. While the new entrance video uses the "It's Thursday Night" entrance music as the previous video, the video now features animated versions of the cast with references to their in-game characters. For instance, Travis Willingham briefly morphs into a bestial form in reference to his character Chetney's werewolf background, while Marisha Ray's hands ooze with dark magic in reference to her undead-adjacent character Laudne. There are also several references to the world of Exandria in the trailer, with the two moons of that world shown multiple times throughout the video. 

Critical Role debuted their last entrance video in the late 2021, which featured the cast in "live action" portraying explorers and adventurers. Some criticized the previous entrance sequence for portraying colonization in a positive light. Critical Role did not indicate a reason for the change for the new video. 

Critical Role is a popular webseries featuring a group of voice actors playing Dungeons & Dragons. The show's cast includes Mercer, Bailey, Marisha Ray, Liam O'Brien, Taliesin Jaffe, Ashley Johnson, Sam Riegel, and Travis Willingham. While the show started off as a home TTRPG game that aired on Geek & Sundry, it has since grown into one of the biggest web series on the Internet. In 2019, Critical Role launched a Kickstarter campaign to self-fund production of an animated series called The Legend of Vox Machina featuring the characters and adapting events from the first campaign. The campaign raised over $11 million and became one of the most-funded Kickstarter campaigns of all time. Amazon Studios picked up The Legend of Vox Machina and has already renewed the show for a second season. Critical Role also has numerous licensing partnerships to make books, toys, and apparel items featuring characters from the show. It also has a partnership with D&D maker Wizards of the Coast, with two rulebooks available set in the world of Exandria. 

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