Critical Role has built an entertainment empire by bringing tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) storytelling to a wide audience. What began as a journey through web series is now continuing with animated series released on Prime Video. With projects like 'The Legend of Vox Machina' and 'The Mighty Nein,' Critical Role has garnered a large following and continues to tell unique fantasy stories with its new campaigns. Their latest campaign started in October 2025.

The members of Critical Role are talented and successful players who have become icons in the D&D world. This combination could make them an ideal cast for Peacock's highly anticipated 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' series. Collider Ladies Night celebrated its first full live show with Laura Bailey, Marisha Ray, and Ashley Johnson from Critical Role at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles. During a fan casting question posed during the show, Bailey immediately focused on the 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' series.

'Dungeon Crawler Carl' is a literary role-playing game series created by author Matt Dinniman. At the beginning of the first book, an alien invasion nearly wipes out life on Earth. The survivors must enter the 18-story Earth Dungeon, built using the resources of the planet. Carl and the other "crawlers," including his ex-girlfriend's cat Donut, learn from NPCs to pass each level, choose character race and class, gather materials, and battle bosses. If they cannot advance to the next level within a set time, the level they are on collapses, and all "crawlers" remaining there die.

The first book achieved great success, and Dinniman has the opportunity to publish a total of eight novels by May 2026. In 2024, it was announced that Universal International Studios and Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door company acquired the rights to adapt 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' into a series. In the past few weeks, Peacock has directly ordered the series, meaning MacFarlane and his team could be casting soon.

Bailey quickly responded to the fan casting question as she is currently reading 'Dungeon Crawler Carl.' "I've read a lot of 'Dungeon Crawler Carl' and saw that the rights were acquired; they already greenlit it, and that excites me. But listen, I read the series, and when it came to the role of Samantha, Marisha would be great for that role," she said. Bailey explained why Ray would be suitable for this role by referencing something Ray did in her video podcast series 'Weird Kids.'