Back in March, the folks behind web series "Critical Role" wanted to raise $750,000 to finance an animated Dungeons and Dragons digital special.
By the close of the campaign 45 days later, "Critical Role" fans had shelled out more than $11.3 million, making the fundraiser the most successful film or television project in Kickstarter history. More than 88,000 people contributed to the campaign.
While fans paid for a 10-episode season, they will actually get more than double the content when "The Legend of Vox Machina" debuts on Amazon Prime Video.
On Tuesday, the team at Critical Role and Amazon announced the streaming service would be the exclusive home for the upcoming animated series and had ordered an additional 14 episodes, for a total of 24 episodes spread across two seasons.
"We couldn't have dreamed up better partners for this animated series," Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham, cast members of Critical Role and executive producers on the series, said in a joint statement to CNBC. "Amazon has proven they deeply care about the fantasy genre, and Titmouse is literally staffed by dozens of Critical Role fans."
"And with a two season order, we can push the action, the comedy and the characters in ways we never thought possible," Riegel and Willingham said. "But make no mistake, the series could not have been possible without the tens of thousands of diehard fans that supported the Kickstarter and lit the spark. Critters — you did this! And we can't thank you enough."
Amazon also revealed it had signed a first look deal with Critical Role to develop a new series to premiere exclusively on Prime Video.
"Critical Role blazed a new trail for original digital content, with fresh new voices and humor that earned devoted fans around the world, as evidenced by their wildly successful Kickstarter campaign," Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, said.
"Vox Machina" will be produced by Titmouse, the production company behind Netflix's "Big Mouth," and will be written by Jennifer Muro ("Star Wars: Forces of Destiny"). The series is currently slated to arrive in the fall of 2020.
Roll for initiative
"Critical Role" is a weekly live-streamed "Dungeons and Dragons" game played by voice actors from TV shows "Avengers Assemble," "Spider-Man" and "Transformers" as well as video games "Overwatch," "The Last of Us" and "Fallout," among others.
The first campaign lasted 115 episodes, with each video lasting between three- and six-hours long. The show was so popular with fans that a second campaign was started in January 2018. This second season of the show features seven of the eight actors in the first season as all new characters and has currently aired 83 episodes.
Ashley Johnson ( "The Last of Us"), Laura Bailey ("Rick and Morty"), Liam O'Brien ("Carmen Sandiego"), Marisha Ray ("Lego DC Super-Villains"), Sam Riegel ("Ducktales"), Taliesin Jaffe ("Injustice 2″), Travis Willingham ("Avengers Assemble") will lend their voices to the project as well as dungeon master Matthew Mercer ("Overwatch").
The cast will also serve as executive producers on the project alongside Brandon Auman ("Star Wars: Resistance") and Chris Prynoski ("Metalocalypse") and with Sung Jin Ahn ("Niko and the Sword of Light") as supervising director.
