Prime VideoIn the world of actual-play Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, Critical Role is both the most popular and the most daunting. The series began as a home campaign for a collection of voice actors, all led by Matt Mercer, and slowly amassed a cult following on Twitch, YouTube, and now its own streaming service, Beacon. But if you don’t have time for the hundreds of four-hour-plus episodes, there’s now an alternative: Prime Video’s animated adaptations, which began with an adaptation of the first campaign, The Legend of Vox Machina, back in 2022. The latest series, The Mighty Nein, is the greatest Critical Role work yet, if only because it plays around with the familiar story to create something even better than what was at the table. The Mighty Nein’s original campaign followed seven (not nine, it’s confusing) ragtag adventurers as they set out to obtain a vastly powerful weapon and save their land as they know it. But the series only follows six characters teaming up: tortured sorcerer Caleb (Liam O’Brien), hedonistic goblin Nott the Brave (Sam Riegel), grumpy martial artist monk Beauregard Lionett (Marisha Ray), flamboyant fortune teller Mollymauk Tealeaf (Taliesin Jaffe), eternally joyful prankster Jester Lavorre, and beached former sailor Fjord (Travis Willingham). The seventh is Ashley Johnson’s mysteriously stoic barbarian Yasha Nydoorin, who mostly spends the series on her own mission. When this was revealed in the trailer, it was disappointing to fans, but it makes the story so much richer in the actual series. “It's not necessarily that her story has changed that much; it's her introduction to the group,” Johnson tells Inverse. “We couldn't tell her story the way we did at the table. And I think this is what I would've wanted for her story.” The Mighty Nein keeps one member of the original party separate, but for a very good reason. | Amazon Prime VideoIt’s a microcosm of what makes The Mighty Nein so great: unlike Vox Machina, which mostly stuck to the familiar, this campaign shakes things up and uses the TV format to its benefit, often abandoning the group entirely to establish the greater threats ahead like an entire subplot following dunamacy wizard Essek, voiced by Matt Mercer (among his many other small roles). “Essek's story is a complicated one,” Mercer tells Inverse. “A lot of his story just existed in my imagination until we had the opportunity to bring this to animation. It was really, really delightful to step into those shoes and get to experience it as a performer.”Subplots aren’t the only strength of this new format. In the campaign, backstories were usually told through characters reminiscing about their past, but this series can actually depict full flashbacks, fleshing out characters’ stories from the beginning, while still keeping details hidden. It also allows for a bigger cast of characters, including guest voice roles for Anjelica Huston, Alan Cumming, Nathan Fillion, Auli’i Cravahlo, and Jonathan Frakes. But while the story has been manipulated to be more beginner-friendly, there are also moments that reward longtime Critical Role fans — or “Critters,” as they’re lovingly known. This series, in particular, is a basket full of Easter eggs. “There's a very frequent saying on the production team, which is, ‘There's a lot of space back there. What can we put in it?’” Travis Willingham tells Inverse. “We have a long-running list of things that we'll try and find their way into the show at any given time.”The animated series format allows for subplots and side characters to be fleshed out even without any main characters present. | Amazon Prime Video“Look at design work and patterns on the ground that make up the tile and the architecture,” Marisha Ray adds. “There’s even Easter eggs hidden in there.” The world of Critical Role is getting even bigger, even outside of the animated series. The tabletop saga is now on its fourth campaign, one that takes the action to a completely different universe, a giant roster of players, and a brand new DM, allowing Matt Mercer to step to the other side of the DM screen as a player. But if you want to check it out after watching The Mighty Nein, you should be warned that it’s a different vibe. “Many of the Campaign Four characters are very ingrained into society,” Mercer says. “Many of them are older and have established places in the world, and circumstances sweep them up where they are currently in campaign four. But The Mighty Nein is very much a story of wayward souls that are wandering alone... in a world of mighty circumstances, and brewing conflict, and factional and political warfare.” This found family aspect makes certain looming parts of the story even more devastating — anyone who has seen the original campaign knows what lies ahead for some of these characters. But don’t assume that everything will remain the same.“Anything's possible, and the fact that we've already juggled things around means things are being juggled around,” Taleisin Jaffe tells Inverse. “I think that there are beats that are inevitable. We have to make sure that we get all the good that comes with tragedy, and all the tragedy that comes with the good.” The Mighty Nein is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.