According to Gamerant, Critical Role has recently removed hundreds of videos from their official Youtube account featuring actor Brian Wayne Foster (UnDeadwood, Between the Sheets). In 2021 Critical Role announced Foster was leaving the company. It was presented at the time as an amicable departure from his role hosting Talks Machina and participating in other shows. Actress Ashley Johnson (The Last of Us, The Legend of Vox Machina), a long-time partner and fiance of Foster, also separated from him. This was due to a long alleged history of alleged verbal abuse, alleged control, and alleged substance dependence. After their separation, the behaviors allegedly worsened leading to Johnson filing a restraining order against Foster. The following tweet lists all the content removed.
According to Gamerant, Critical Role has removed all content that Foster was part of and served as host on many occasions. This includes every episode of Talks Machina, which Foster hosted for numerous years, and small number of live shows he hosted during the Mighty Nein campaign. This is not the first time that Critical Role has had issues with an actor. The earliest episodes of Vox Machina featured Orin Acaba as an eighth member, but due to personal reasons, the actor was removed from the series.
Critical Role consists of professional voice actors who banded together to role-play their way through different Dungeon and Dragons campaigns. The series airs weekly and continues the journey that the group has started as they are now on their third campaign. Other than Johnson the group includes Matthew Mercer (Thundercats), Travis Willingham (Avengers Assemble), Laura Bailey (Spider-Man), Liam O’Brien (Asura’s Wrath), Taliesin Jaffe (Hellsing), Marisha Ray (Malibu Horror Story), Sam Reigel (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and many others.
According to Gamerant, many fans agree that the situation revolving around Foster is unfortunate, and although the content that Foster appeared in might have been entertaining and valuable, they are glad Critical Role made this decision. The fans believe that removing their connection with Foster and supporting Johnson was more important than the content he was in.
Many fans can catch the ongoing third campaign of Critical Role on their Twitch every Thursday at 10 pm.