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• Wayne Brady's Legend of Vox Machina character Taryon Darrington is so good the Critical Role staff are already talking about a spin-off for him

It's one thing to originate a character like Taryon Darrington in a campaign like Critical Role, but it's another to take up the reins to play the character in an animated adaptation for Prime Video in The Legend of Vox Machina. 

Fans first met Taryon Darrington in Campaign One of Critical Role, where he was played by Sam Riegel. However, when the campaign was brought to screens in the TV adaptation, The Legend of Vox Machina, actor Wayne Brady assumed the role. So how did Riegel go about introducing Brady to Taryon? We sat down with the cast of Critical Role to discuss how it all went down. 

"I think when we were first recording him for the first session, [Wayne Brady] wanted to see what I had done with the character in the past," Riegel tells Popverse's Trent Cannon. "We told him, 'You can do whatever you want, make it your own.' But he said, 'Nonono, I want this to at least be somewhat similar to what fans are expecting.' And so we played him some clips, we put together some clips of me doing the character in Campaign One, and he watched them, and he was like, 'I got it. I can do that better' [laughs]."

"No no no, he took elements from it that he thought that the fans would be expecting, his pompous attitudes, his more formal way of speaking, his sort of vague, not British, but pompous accent, mid-Atlantic, sort of thing. And then he put his Wayne Brady spin on it... By the end of recording of the season, I feel like he's more Taryon Darrington than I am at this point," Riegel said.  

And what were the scenes in question that Brady latched onto most? 

"Probably the original meeting, of when Taryon meets the rest of the group, and says, 'This will be fun, fun, fun.' And we probably sent him the scene where Taryon and Pike use her flashcards to teach Taryon the names of each of the members of Vox Machina," recalled Riegel. 

Brady carried the same charisma that Riegel brought to Taryon in the Legend of Vox Machina adaptation. You can catch the next installment in the epic story when season 4 of the show premieres on Prime Video on June 3, 2026. 

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

• Critical Role release schedule
• Critical Role's Campaign 4 characters ranked
• How to watch Critical Role in order
• Ways for you to relive the Critical Role panel from ECCC '26
• Taliesin Jaffe on playing Mollymauk Tealeaf for Campaign 2 vs. playing him for Prime Video
• Matt Mercer's homebrew warrior class (created originally for Vin Diesel)

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.