How The Legend Of Vox Machina Season 4's Time Jump Has Changed The Team's Dynamic Explained By Critical Role

1 hour ago 11

The group looking awkwardly at Taryon in The Legend of Vox Machina season 4

Published Jun 4, 2026, 6:01 PM EDT

Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.

In a change of pace, The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 picks up a year after its predecessor, resulting in some key changes to the group's dynamic.

The new season adapting Critical Role's first campaign finds the titular team enjoying new lives apart after defeating the Chroma Conclave. Vex and Percy have returned to Whitestone and are enjoying a quiet life of luxury and romance, while Vax and Keyleth have been sailing together in an effort to complete her Aramenté, Pike and Grog are still together, though the former is deeply depressed and drinking extensively as she misses her friends.

However, their paths all start to converge as The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 introduces Taryon Darrington, a dim-witted adventurer whose desire to meet the team also comes with the discovery of the rising power of the Cult of the Whispered One. As they bring their destruction to some of the team's home regions, they realize they must come back together for one of their most intense fights yet.

In anticipation of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Grant Hermanns interviewed Critical Role's Laura Bailey, Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel, Travis Willingham, Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, and Liam O'Brien, and Wayne Brady, to discuss The Legend of Vox Machina season 4. In looking at the one-year time jump from season 3's ending, and how it's changed the team, Jaffe began by sharing that the time jump has given Percy "time to actually gain and cement a bunch of things to actually lose," particularly his and Vex's relationship and ruling Whitestone with his sister, Cassandra:

Taliesin Jaffe: I think that that centered him in this very, very important way. When he first started, it was a lot of chaotic jumps, desperately clinging to what he had, and now he's got his city, he's got his family, he's got the growing suspicion that something is terribly wrong, but enough people keeping him grounded. Playing a grounded mastermind — even when they make terrible plans that involve way too many moving parts and robbing a highly secure library. [Chuckles] That was always one of my favorite parts of the characters, just slightly sinister, semi-evil genius. It's a delight to have anything that chewy to play with, and just to smirk and be super confident.

As for Vex, once the danger returns to her doorstep, Bailey "[doesn't] think she dreads it all," feeling that while "she loves this life that her and Percy have found," the life of luxury is "such a huge difference from the life she's led in the past." Instead, the star states that "it's clear from the beginning that she misses" the adventure and "her family outside of Percy," particularly her brother:

Laura Bailey: Getting to get back into the swing of things, it's almost like this excitement of, "Yes, I want to see if I still have it. I want to see if I can do this."

Pike Is Having Her Most Emotional Journey Yet In Legend Of Vox Machina Season 4

ScreenRant: Ashley, I'll turn to you next, because Pike's journey this season is one of the most emotionally affecting of them all. What can audiences expect from Pike this season, as well as why she is sort of feeling this sense of isolation, even though she has Grog right there with her.

Ashley Johnson: I definitely think Pike, this season, in her journey, her faith sort of really comes to the pinnacle of questioning her faith. This is a year after all of these events with the Chroma Conclave, and I think there's a lot of Pike missing her family, her community, her people. I think that's what gives her so much purpose, and being separated from her family for this long, she's sort of lost direction. Of course, she's got her buddies Grog, who keeps her somewhat in line.

Travis Willingham: [In Grog's voice] Somewhat in line.

Ashley Johnson: [Laughs] But I think everything for her sort of comes to a head. This is, by far, my favorite season so far. I feel like I've said that each season, but this season is a f----ng banger. Pike's journey, specifically, is really intense in this season.

Travis Willingham: You have not said that every season, in fact. I think you did season 1, and you were like, "Season 2, kind of mid. Season 3, I think this is my favorite season." [Chuckles]

ScreenRant: Travis, I'll turn to you next, because I'd love to hear from Grog's perspective what it's like being there with his buddies, but seeing her really struggling, and really trying to break through that wall for her to try and stabilize her a little bit through this journey.

Travis Willingham: The sweet thing about Grog is that he probably doesn't even see the slide into doubt or into self-loathing or into questioning her faith. All of that stuff is stuff that's probably just going right over his head. He's just keyed in on the fact that maybe she's smiling a little bit less, maybe there are more fidgets, maybe she's not having as much fun as she used to. He's picking up on that. He's somebody that once things get really quiet and small, then those nice pearls of wisdom can show themselves. But before that, you know, it's just like, "[In Grog's voice] Why aren't you drinking as much, buddies? You haven't really washed your hair in about two weeks? It's getting a little rank, which is normal in my mind." [Chuckles] So, he could also be like, "Yeah, it's au naturel Pike, no big deal. Doesn't matter that her lipstick is smeared and that she's got puffy eyes from crying all the time, she's just been trying spicy food lately." [Laughs] He's there when you need him, but he's probably not going to pick up on it too early.

Marisha Ray: I do love that Pike drinking less is somehow more of a red flag than her drinking more. It's like, "You haven't even finished your third beer."

ScreenRant: Marisha, I would love to hear about Keyleth and Vex's drunken adventure together this season, because what a fun ride that was. I'd love to hear about going into the booth for that, and getting to sort of explore what their dynamic looks like together, as they're both trying to process a lot regarding Vax.

Marisha Ray: Grant, it's good to have girl time sometimes. [Laughs] No matter how toxic it may be. But no, early on, because even in the original campaign, there was always a little bit of push and pull between Vex and Keyleth, and a little bit of jealousy in Vex and Percy's relationship, Vex having jealousy between Vax and Keyleth's relationship. And then just kind of, I think, whatever your sibling or best friend might go through when your bestie gets a new girlfriend, so I think it was just high time that they finally talk, or in this instance, drank it out.

De Rollo's 11 Proved To Be One Of The Trickiest Vox Machina Episodes To Write

ScreenRant: Marisha, I want to come to you, because you and Liam were the ones who penned De Rollo's 11, which, pardon my French, is such a god---n blast. Obviously, this whole show is everybody here and Chris working together, but I'd love to hear about the creation of that episode, especially given that it sort of expands the lore and maybe ties in a little more with Mighty Nein as the Cobalt Soul becomes a part of this world.

Marisha Ray: Sure, yeah, we all start with a big writers room that a lot of the cast comes in and joins, and we all kind of brainstorm and figure out the entire arc of the season, and early on we were like, "Man, it'd be cool if we do a heist with the Cobalt Soul." I remember being like, "I've always wanted to write a heist," and then they handed us the heist, and Liam and I started writing, and I was like, "I hate writing heists." This is so hard. [Chuckles] Yeah, you have to be smarter than all of the players in the script, and then figure out — it's like writing a puzzle and an escape room, and trying to be quippy and witty all at the same time. But no, it was actually a blast, and we're so stoked how it turned out.

Travis Willingham: Heists and riddles turned out to be two of the hardest things across all seasons to write. We were like, "We'll make up some riddles. How hard can a riddle be?" We suck at riddles. [Laughs]

ScreenRant: Liam, I'd love to turn to you, because you and Marisha were the ones who wrote De Rollo's 11, which I just had such a blast watching from start to finish. I'd love to hear about going into the writing process with her to really create this heist that also expands the lore of Exandria and the Cobalt Soul together.

Liam O'Brien: Oh, well, it's great because Marisha is sort of the origin of the Cobalt Soul. Marisha and I both had a chance to get our toes in as writers a bit in past seasons, and so to get to jump into it with one of my best friends and carve that episode out after cracking it open with the entire writer's room. Boy, that episode was so much fun. It's a breath of fresh air in the middle of a very intense season, and it was like trying to create a Rube Goldberg machine with words, and we're so, so pleased with how it turned out.

Wayne Brady Was Given Free Rein To Make Tary His Own

ScreenRant: First and foremost, I talked with Travis and Sam last week. They mentioned that you guys had worked together on a few things, and were buddies, but so when you were approached to take on this role, what was sort of going through your head?

Wayne Brady: Oh, it was an immediate yes, because I'd already watched two seasons of the show, so I was already a fan of the show. I was already a fan of Sam and the whole Critical Role gang, so it was an easy no-brainer yes, that if I could get a chance to play with people that I respect, and in a world that I already love. Oh, yeah.

ScreenRant: You bring your own take to Tary a little bit after Sam played him for so long. What was it like for you working with them and working with the voice directors to really find that balance between your own approach to the character and honoring what Sam did in the original campaign?

Wayne Brady: I wasn't asked at all to honor what Sam had done, because I think the great thing about a voice director and creative like Sam and Travis and the rest of the team, is they're all artists. You don't go to another artist and say, "Do what I did," you go to them and say, "Do what you do, and I'll give you a place to play in, and a parameter, but do what you do." So Sam, to his credit, never once did he go, "Hey, make sure that he's like [this]." He just said, "This is a script, this is the kind of guy that he is. Let's see what you do." I did it, and it was beautiful to have that runway.

ScreenRant: So, what was the easiest element of Tary to tap into? Would you say it was the singing? Was it the theatricality of his, "Take this down"?

Wayne Brady: The easiest part was the theatricality, because that's very surface level, right? So you make that super huge and big, and that's how he wants the world to see him. He walks into the world like that, that was the easy part, because you know that, as an actor, that's really covering up all this other crap. So that was the fun part, because I knew after reading the scripts, it's like, "Oh, you're gonna see this dude crash at some point, and you're gonna see the real him." So, that was a really fun challenge.

ScreenRant: As the season goes on, we get to see that facade crack a little bit as we learn more about him and his past. What can you tease for viewers about how we're going to see that facade start to break?

Wayne Brady: I think you're going to see — picture the loudest, most irritatingly arrogant person you know, and everybody goes, "Oh my god, this guy." But then you end up learning that he's that guy because of these other reasons, and then you develop a bit of empathy for him. I try, try, try to live by this thing in life. When I get frustrated at somebody in traffic, or in life, I get mad. Nobody gets up in the morning and says, "I'm going to be a d--k." Rarely does someone do that. Nobody really says that, we just think that person is a d--k because they've gotten in our way, or they've inconvenienced us. So, if you extend that empathy sometimes to go, "Why are you like that? You must have had a bad day or a bad life." Sometimes, it works out. So, approaching a guy like him, I think that's a sweet spot that I tried to think of, and that's a sweet spot that they wrote him in.

Be sure to dive into some of our other Legend of Vox Machina season 4 coverage with: