Critical Role's Laura Bailey Teases A "Grittier" Mighty Nein Series & New Vox Machina Clothing Line

oh no this is all that's right no it's all weapons it's just a CR one y'all it's all our characters oh my God weapons I love the critical merch I feel like I could single-handed like single-handedly keep you guys in business because I have gotten to the point where all I get from people for Christmas and birthday gifts is critical roll things seriously yeah like two Christmases ago I very much went oh this has become my identity good to know how did critical role get involved with creators passion they I I think they just approached us and we heard about the opportunity and we're absolutely stoked to join you know style theory is such a an awesome Channel and uh the fact that we get to showcase our our merchandise on a Runway which has never been done before is really nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time and getting to join with other audiences you know because I think a lot of the other creators involved style theories audience is not necessarily the same as critical roles audience so it's awesome to to get to like see other people in that environment why did this feel so in line with critical roles goals and values well it really just felt like a really fun opportunity if I'm being real uh when it was presented as as something we you know we kind of jumped at the chance uh I never imagined when we started critical role or when I started working on the merchandise for critical role that we would ever come to a place that we would get to you know style models and and you know our own wonderful employees and and cast that are walking the runway on this event that we would get to showcase our clothing in that way it's so new and exciting and I think it just shows how much as a brand we've kind of grown um since since the beginning and I love one of the things about this is it's very it feels very fan driven and fan connected in a way that most like fashion wouldn't uh what excited you about that aspect of it beyond the we get to show our clothes on a Runway that's really freaking cool what's kind of driven our design from the beginning uh has been fan interaction you know we've had I I I've been very present on Twitter and people have reached out to me going ah you know what I would love why I would love to see you know a gester dresser I would love to see uh clothing BAS the characters and to be able to reciprocate that and feed what people are feeding us um has been really wonderful and so uh to have that interaction on the day is going to be so different and so cool I don't even know what to expect fully but I'm I'm kind of beside myself I don't want to talk to you a little bit about kind of critical R's evolution of the merchandise because it started with like some of my favorite stuff are almost the inside jokes that become merch like I love the not the best detective t-shirt but I designed that one it's so good I wear that all the and then there's clothing that feel like more stylized and like you said almost based on what the character would be wearing can you talk to me about how like that Evolution took place and how you've grown like in your role with that aspect of it yeah when we first started I was we were creating basically t-shirts and stuff that we would wear I love the idea of an the inside joke I loved that it didn't necessarily scream critical role some of our merchandise but if people watched the show then they would get the joke and they I loved that if you were out in public you could meet people with similar interests because it would kind of show you would know if they watch the show based on you know if they got the joke or not um and then as our audience grew and we wanted to Branch out from just doing you know t-shirts and hoodies which are still awesome and make up 80% of my wardrobe uh the idea of getting to do ready to wear clothing that are kind of more in Universe if that makes sense yeah so basing designs on what the characters would wear in our world was just a really fun concept and to create that and go but what would our audience wear in conjunction with that you know like it would be easy to create clothing items that Yasha would wear but it has to also coincide with what our fan base and our audience is going to want to put on their body right so it can't just all be bandages and and stuff like that so that's why we created our our Yasha hoodie with a slash mark So it still is reminiscent of her while being something that you can wear in your day-to-day life and then the Bell tells collection to me really stands out from the other collections I think it's most in line with the beauty of exandria can you talk to me about what's been fun specifically about tapping into the bells hell's characters also just because these characters like aesthetically are so unique from each other yeah I think that's what makes it so so different is that all of the characters have such strong personalities and such strong looks compared to each other uh so we've been able to like if you just told me five years ago that we were going to be making a denim shirt you know I'd be like okay I don't see that happening but it made so much sense for imin to have that kind of a almost a Western influence right um but we wanted to do it in a way that was still you know you could style it NE so it doesn't just have to be a farm or at a rodeo um yeah I think Bell's Hells is just everybody is so unique in their personality so we wanted to Showcase that and what's really fun is that we've been able to go back recently and look at Vox Maka again cuz really when we were doing Vox makina that was even feasible at the time was to do cut and so items based on the the characters and so now we get to go back and we're working on a box mocking line as well how does it feel going from the first time you guys had a t-shirt where it sold out before you were finished announcing it to now like you're showing off Fashion on a Runway that's that's crazy can you believe it when we first did that t-shirt you know we only made a 100 because we didn't think anybody was going to buy it and thank God we only did a 100 cuz when it sold out then we didn't think about the fact that we'd have to ship it so all of us were just you know sitting in me and Travis's dining room hand addressing the envelopes and sending them out like so the whole cast did the shipping process on that first shirt and now we've got six I think six warehouses across the world that that send out merchandise so um it's crazy that it's grown so much in in the amount of time um but at the same time it's still about the fans it's still about what what they want from us and what you know we're comfortable making as well is there maybe something that you haven't been able to tap into yet be it like clothing or a different aspect of merchandise that you really would like to but it just doesn't feel maybe feasible at the moment I like the idea of doing housewares um just because I also really love you know decorating my house um and like I said I always make stuff that I want um so yeah that would be great is to to be able to Branch out into that world eventually but um I that's it's a whole other you factory situation that I don't uh you know we'd probably just license a lot of it for now but um we made a joke earlier about doing chairs since that seems to be running gag in our in our campaigns so maybe we'll we'll create some chairs eventually chair evil critical roll Furniture that's awesome I love that I have the jester the sprinkle neck pillow that I'll wear on planes and just confuse everyone it's great it's so wonderful I I still feel like we could have made him a little more ragged but then you wouldn't want to wear it on your neck you know soine it's so great I don't think like one of the things I find very interesting about fashion because I'm not someone that ever thought that much about it so I think looking at it now as like this way of self-expression especially as like I've gotten to become friends with people who use that really as like hey this is how I'm going to express my identity this is how I show the world what has it been like to kind of be able to do that and like almost this marriage of fans getting to express themselves and you guys getting to help them do that through their passion for critical role it's been so wonderful I've always been somebody who likes to express myself through clothing and even depending day to day my fashion choices will change to Showcase who what I'm feeling like that day you know um so to be able to provide that for somebody else and especially you know we go to conventions which we didn't get to do for so long because of because of Co and everything to start going to conventions again and see people in person wearing the clothing that we've been making I want to cry so often when we're there and just seeing how people are taking those items and making it their own um I see so many you know like Molly shirts I think is one of our most popular items everybody looks so awesome in it everybody has styled it so well and it it's just it makes me want to keep doing it it makes me want to keep creating unique clothing items that um people will appreciate because what's great about doing lines based on the characters is that you do get to appeal to a wider base of audience members you know so you can take the Caleb Blazer and and wear it to to work or you can wear one of our polos to work you know and get to like still feel like you're you have your own interests while you're doing something that you know is not for yourself sometimes which character has been your favorite to kind of be able to play with and find a way to bring their fashion in like out of exandria into our world Keith has been really wonderful that that will be coming later you'll get to see she's just really really cool um you know the hardest one this is a reverse of your question the hardest one was fcg because I was like what do we do what do we do with that guy okay and but you know it's been it was great we did uh we ended up going with this like Mr Rogers Vibe for it which is why we did that cozy cardigan for them yeah and I think it ended up working really well there were a lot of different iterations of what that cozy cardigan would look like but we wanted it different enough from the caducus cardigan that it would still feel fresh you know so and then what's been really fun I'm just talking now but what's been really fun is seeing which items Maybe speak more to our audiences like which ones sell faster or and and then being able to take that same that same line and and doing it again in a different color or a different so we have some really awesome um things coming out I I'm like don't want to spoil anything too much we have some stuff coming out that's based on previous designs that are like in a new palette which is really cool the merch must kind of scratch a different creative itch Tre than like voice acting or getting to play The Improv of the d and d and all that kind of stuff how but how does it kind of merge for you when you get to like help design like how people are going to be able to show their love for critical role but how does that kind of scratch the itch for you in a similar way to like when you're doing character creation you know that that's a really I hadn't thought about that that's a really good point it does kind of scratch that same itch uh character creation is always one of the things that I enjoy the most um is putting up like a a look together for what you're going to be wearing for however many hours or days or weeks or years um so yeah it it does have that same appeal um I think I really like seeing our characters come to life in a new way with the designs that we're doing I really enjoy seeing our cast members reactions when we get H you know I'll get a sample in of of something and being able to show it to like the bomber the or bomber jacket that I was able to show to Liam and to see his reaction to seeing that was it it just like brings joy to my heart to to get to see that um so I and I hope you know from the get-go our show has always been we're a bunch of Geeks having fun together and I feel like our audience is the same as us you know like our audience it's a bunch of friends hanging out so hopefully if we like something then the audience will like it as well no I very much feel that that is the way length the audience is on CU I feel like I'm on that wave length a lot it's great that makes me very happy I'm very excited to see you guys show off your clothing in a more um I guess controlled environment but I do enjoy the unhinged announcement on the streams of the clothing yeah the T that I feel at the start of every episode when I'm going to be showing something I don't know you would think I would be better at it after all this time and it just all goes out the window I'm I am no better at it than I was 10 years ago please never be more organized about it it's so much fun like the announcements are so much more organized now they're it's right there I just I still am just terrible I don't know I don't know and I I think I'm going to be talk on the day at creators and fashion I think I'm going to be talking about items which it's going to just I got to go prepared I got to go prepared man no you don't fully wing it it's going to be amazing you're GNA see me having like a panic attack because you'll be there you're gonna see me just like flailing okay look straight at me I'll be cheering you're fine it's okay I'm I'm gonna find you I forever will love the holding up no shirt and having post insert a shirt after one of the best things I've ever seen because I was wearing the shirt and I didn't I forgot to bring it in this is the problem they stopped letting me take stuff home now because I'll take you home and then I'll just add it into my wardrobe and I'll like just wear it and then they're like can you bring this item to show on the stream and I'm like I don't know where it is it's somewhere oh yeah I love that so much um problem being a part of this corner of critical role impacted your like character design especially as we've gone through with like Jester and uh imagin now that you've like been in this more gosh you know you would think that I would have thought more about it when I'm doing character creation that's a good point you know I should do that I should think about what it's G what's going to affect the clothing items we going to I I do think about like oh what is this going to look like in dice form as we're doing character creation now but I I don't go down the line yet and think about like what is the clothing item going to be it's funny cuz some characters jump out a bit more right like Ashton I feel like they're easy to come up with clothing items for I have so many things that I can imagine for Ashton but imagin is hard because like I can't release suspenders I can't you know like for vex we H I guess I could but would they sell there's always this line of like we could create something really Niche but how many people are going to want to to put that on their body I don't know maybe it'll surprise me maybe we should just like that's what we did with the the gesture dress you know I didn't know how many people were going to want to buy cute dress with little bees on it and flowers but I was shocked it did really well I was so happy that it did that meant we got to do future dresses you know so then we got to do the L dress too which also uh did really well well for us so it's exciting so the answer is do the niche thing is what it seems to do the niche thing that's it has like kind of in that same vein has becoming more involved in the fashion aspect like changed how you think about clothing when you're doing character creation not in the how will this look as merch but maybe like okay I know my I want my character style to be this but this is how I want to play with it yeah well I think I've always well that's not true yeah you're right it has gotten more involved as I've gotten more involved in like creating clothing like I think more in terms of how is this going to flow um how does this piece together um you know I maybe that's why with imagin I've been very into creating this like sheer flowy clothing item that is always part of her her design um I think when we were originally doing Vox maach and uh I I would think in terms of color so I'd always always want Vex to that that through line of teal for her for her clothing um yeah I I I that's the first time I've realized it but you're right I'm curious how like it is been to because with the designing kind of the merchandise and stuff it's very much I would assume more of a partnership where with character designing like this is how I want them to look and this is like my aspect of it so how is that kind of translated into like the character design and animation where you kind of have to balance your desire of what you want to see with it versus like what's feasible and how the character designer and animators are able to interpret your creation yeah there's I we we did go back and forth a bit on you know character designs and stuff like that of like what what piece what item is it about that character that can't be lost right in when it's translated um and I I think our our artist Phil you know he he did such an amazing job of really capturing those characters in such a beautiful way I know like we're in the process of doing Mighty n right now uh in the animated world and you know like Molly this is always a talison issue because he always goes overboard with he because he he understands cosplay see so he would always create characters based on what will be fun for cosplayers he wants them to have like a lot of fun with it so like Molly's coat is beautiful but like you cannot animate Molly's coat with all those designs you know so it's like that where's the line there where what can we do and we did the same with Percy's coat it was very very ornate in talis's mind and it had to be like bro it's got to be kind of like a blue coat you know what I mean um so there's there's give and take there one of the things I love about critical role is how you guys always kind of find the next innov Innovative way to like connect with the audience or tell tell the story in a way that I wouldn't necessarily expect like you've got the game publishing arm you guys are doing animation and then with like this fashion show what's the next kind of path you'd like to see critical role take that maybe isn't the most anticipated but you're like oh that would be really cool to dive into well we keep talking about how much fun it would be to do video games yeah I would love I would love that just because that's that's where we started you know video games and cartoons we did the cartoons video games are very hard to make but darn it I want I would love to see you know I would love to see our characters and and be able to control them in a different way that' be so cool I'm going to ask one animation question it's not spoilery so I'm hoping you something about it I'm careful I know how it works with Mighty n coming which I'm so hyped for because that's how I found critical ro oh wow cool yeah um what are you excited for fans to see that will make it stand out from what they've experienced with Legend of ox makaka I feel like Mighty n in some aspects was far grittier with the storytelling even on stream and so we are we're getting to explore kind of those darker themes with Mighty n um than we than we were able to or even that it didn't warrant it necessarily with fox makina in the same way um that's all I that's the stuff I've seen coming back for 9 I'm very very excited about it oh I can't wait and I can't wait for Jester's messaging I fully was like I hope they don't give Laura lines I hope they're like this is what you're trying to say we're gonna cut you off at 20 just cut it off yeah my gosh what a way to do it that would be amazing the writers know don't write don't write it story lines you know what though like when we get in the room when we get in the recording booth it kind of ends up that way anyway like everybody just goes on tangents so I love it um and then what has been kind of your favorite part of being able to do specific lines like with uh beauty of xandria which isn't specifically based on uh campaign it's got more of like pulling everything into it but finding a through line there are so many aspects of exandria and Matt storytelling and now arria's storytelling and Brennan's storytelling that I want to be able to explore and our and our merchandising team wants to be able to see uh tangibly uh so to be able to do something like the beauty of exandria collection and and like our giant tapestry blanket you know it was just so amazing to to show that Calamity moment is that Calamity fighting at the Gods that Calamity H um regardless it's uh it's just really beautiful you know we had the motion of exandria so when we originally started creating like these lines uh it was kind of like we want to think about items for each character and what do they mean so how are we going to fit them into like the beauty of Alexandria collection you know the Wilds of exandria the motion of exandria the you know the dark Academia of alandria and whatnot um and then we kind of just like fit decided which characters would fit into those vibes right and ended up becoming Mighty n collection and then we're like What are collections anyway we're just gonna release what we want to release and call it what we want to call it um but we are doing a a Vox ma collection which I'm super stoked about I'm very excited to check that out too and then the last question I'll ask you what is it like looking back from where you started like over 9 years ago to where you guys are now as a company I don't understand it I think it's basically what it comes down to you know we're still just a bunch of goobers playing pretend now we just play pretend a lot more than we used to I guess like even when we first broke down like the roles within the company and Travis was going to be CEO and Marisha was going to be production Queen and our and our daddy was Liam and I would you know do merchandise it was it was just because that's what we said oh that sounds fun you know and you know it's a matter of like playing pretend and and pre faking your way through it until you actually understand what you're doing and then and then it's just your life so you know I would have never thought that's where we would be right now and now it feels normal cuz it's it's what we're doing I don't know now we have a fashion show now we have a fashion show what yeah I'm just like how many can we how can we style the clothes but then also put something else on it like we have so much stuff yeah so and I think each each Creator is getting like 10 15 minutes to do their walks so how whatever looks you can fit into that amount of time you know like around 10 11 look something like that and um so yeah it's it's amazing how really head to toe we could style each model it's like a matter of do we want to put everything on each person or just like you know showcase one one item at a time so it's it's a fun process right now of figuring out what the models are going to look like and so your note to the models was please run as quickly as you can up and down run pause run back you know we the people walking on our side are you know our employees and our and talison walking and like he's so great at this stuff I don't know how he always looks like so wonderful doing whatever he does he's also like incredibly photogenic anytime we take pictures I'm always like dang it talison um but yeah like I would be so nervous walking they asked if I wanted to walk and I was like are you kidding no I'm going to talk I'll talk bad at that too but at least I won't trip on my fall on my face I cannot wait for the show I can't wait for all the new Merchant you guys put out I just I've said it before whatever you guys want to throw at me I'm game I love all the things you guys do it's so fun critical roll is genuinely like not only one of my favorite shows it's one of my favorite companies so I am so happy for you guys [Music]

Channel: Screen Rant Plus

Views: 59,476

Keywords: candela obscura, critical role, dnd, dungeons and dragons, interviews, laura bailey, movies, news, tv

Id: cCwPUsQEnB4

Length: 26min 26sec (1586 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 19 2024