Exploring Yasha’s Backstory, Bells Hells Easter Eggs, & More

(by Christopher Gallardo)

Critical Role’s second merry band of misfits have made their way to Prime Video on November 19 with the first three episodes, and fans cannot wait to see where they’re going. Though The Mighty Nein’s format already proves to showcase a different experience for Critters who’ve watched The Legend of Vox Machina, this season is filled with origin stories to satiate that burning anticipation.

To get a better understanding of what fans can expect from Critical Role’s next animated series, we got to talk with showrunner Tasha Huo about the big things coming to Season 1. One of these things that fans are truly excited to see is Yasha, a mysterious barbarian character voiced by Ashley Johnson. Given Johnson’s schedule during the webseries, Huo explained why it was important to explore Yasha’s backstory in the brief moments that The Mighty Nein can.

“It’s because we didn’t get a lot of her backstory in the campaign,” Huo began. “I read the comics that came after, I was like, ‘There’s so much richness here, and it really adds so many layers to who Yasha is. Now is the time to build that into the actual show, the actual experience of watching it.’”

“It’s not just ‘Ashley’s gone.’ There’s no different reason why Yasha may not be present here. There was a lot going on with her that the Mighty Nein didn’t know or understand, that they kind of made up because she was leaving, but we get to say, ‘No, it’s grounded in a real reason.’ I am just so excited that we get to honor her backstory more in this show!”

While Yasha may not be fully present for most of The Mighty Nein Season 1, Critters know that she’s destined to have a fruitful relationship with the arrogant Beau, voiced by Marisha Ray. Huo explained how showing those flashbacks have prepared her to handle Beau and Yasha’s relationship for the future.

“I love big character arcs and I’m such a fan of when characters start one way and then they end up the opposite,” Huo explained. “With characters who are going to end up together, it is very fun to show them in the exact opposite place.”

“That’s the thing that’s interesting about Yasha. Even when she was in the campaign, she was so mysterious and no one really knew what was going on with her, that there was a lot of distrust. We get to really play with that distrust as we move into future seasons, which is super cool to be able to do.”

Though some elements of Season 1 build upon things coming for upcoming events on The Mighty Nein, there are also some scenes that actually play a bigger role in Critical Role’s third campaign, “Bells Hells”. Particularly, there’s a chaotic scene involving Jester and Nott defacing the temple of a deity known as the Platinum Dragon. For Critters familiar with Campaign Three, it’s revealed that one of Sam Riegel’s characters in that campaign, Braius Doomseed, witnessed Jester and Nott’s destruction.

Given the events that Season 1 tackles, Huo explained what the conversations were like to hint at Campaign Three’s events through easter eggs, potential cameos, and even future narrative points in The Mighty Nein.

“We had the beauty of having Campaign 3 going on, the kind of a tail end as we were going,” Huo recalled. “Stuff would unravel in Campaign 3 that sometimes we would have to go back to an earlier episode and be like, ‘Hey, is this a place where we can lay some of that foundation?’”

“Some of that foundation from Campaign 3, as we know, was layered into what was actually going on in sort of the background of Campaign 2. We are very aware of all of the campaigns in our show.”

Aside from The Mighty Nein, Huo has also been at work with the script for Destin Daniel Cretton’s live-action Naruto movie. While there has been little word on the film’s production since 2024, Huo shared an update on where the script is now as well as which Mighty Nein characters best represent her takes on Naruto’s main characters for the film.

"I’m not sure where Naruto is now, but I finished the script,” Huo recalled. “That’s all I can say on that front!”

“Who’s Naruto? Jester, for sure. Sakura is a little too insecure to be any of [The Mighty Nein] characters [because] our characters are insecure in different ways. We need a good mentor character for her.”

“I don’t think there’s one-to-ones, which is a good thing, but Naruto is definitely Jester,” Huo affirmed.