*Spoiler*
The animated adaptation of Critical Role‘s second campaign, The Mighty Nein shocks with surprising altercation involving one of their character’s fate. According to Screenrant, the character in question is the carnival elf girl Toya, voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho (Moana, Mean Girls), who seems to have been killed by the demon toad. This is a major difference within the original tabletop campaign, in which the titular group were able to rescue her from the dangerous beast’s possession. Furthermore, the race of the character was also changed from being a dwarf in the campaign to an elf in the animated series.
The series showrunner, Tasha Huo (The Witcher Blood Origin, Red Sonja) goes on to answer the question by Screenrant about the change and the creative process ,”It was really important to me, because at that point in the story, the Mighty Nein are not a team, and they needed something to come together over. As Molly says in that episode, we now have shared trauma, and that is something that starts to put them at least on the road to becoming a team.”
According to Screenrant, several cast members including Matt Mercer (Sakamoto Days, Attack on Titan) who plays Essek, Sam Riegel (Blue Exorcist, Fate/Stay Night) who plays Nott the Brave, and Liam O’Brien (Naruto Shippuden, Tiger & Bunny) who plays Caleb, have mentioned in their statements that the change not only raises the stakes but also allows the group to experience a collective failure and advance the storyline.
There will surely be more surprising twists and turns along the group’s journey, as they will learn secrets about each other, while protecting the realm from being destroyed by the forces using the Beacon. All current episodes of The Mighty Nein are available to stream on prime Video, with weekly releases every Wednesday.