In the latest episode of Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!, a gruop of adventurers is brought together to investigate a potential threat to the town they are staying in. However, all is not as it seems when they discover the mage they were tasked with hunting down has an even more powerful leader pulling the strings. The trend continues as these level-one characters face impossible odds against something much more powerful than them and fall one by one.
The new episode of Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! “Everyone Dies Getting Their Wish” stars Justice Arman as the Dungeon Master, with Khary Payton, River Butcher, Elisa Teague, and Gabe Hicks taking on the roles of the doomed heroes. The Beadle & Grimm’s founders, Matthew Lillard, Bill Rehor, Jon Ciccolini, Paul Shapiro, and Charlie Rehor, created the series. With all the best elements brought together in one-hour episodes that run the gambit of emotion with comedy, tragedies, heroism, heart, and epic battles, the series also features exciting new guest stars in every episode.
The Walking Dead & 9 Other Khary Payton Movies & Shows, Ranked By IMDb
Khary Payton is most recognized for his work as King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead, but what other great work does he have on his resume?
Screen Rant interviewed Khary Payton about his episode of Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! He discussed his deep love for everything Dungeson & Dragons, collaborating with Beadle & Grimm’s team, and chemistry at the table. Payton also shared a story he’d like to explore from The Walking Dead and the deep connection he has to his Encounter Party character.
Khary Payton Talks Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!
Screen Rant: All right, so the first question I want to ask you is what excited you most about the premise of Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! when you signed on?
Khary Payton: You know what? I am down for anything D&D, honestly. I love D&D. I was introduced to it later in life. I didn’t grow up playing it when I was a kid, and my friends over at a Critical Role, Matt Mercer and Liam O’Brien literally talked to me before and after and during voiceover sessions years ago just about playing with my kids. So I played with my kids just to have family bonding time.
And then they asked me to play with them, and it is so freeing and just such an amazing, creative outlet for me that I just fell in love with it. So if you say D&D, you’re halfway there to get me to do it. And then it was like, “You know what? I should have come drunk. I should have come drunk.” Here’s the thing that… They said, “You know what? You don’t have to worry about preparing too much, just come, have a good time.” But I think that they should have told me to prepare even less.
They should have told me to come inebriated or high. I think it would’ve only added to the festivities because the show, I don’t even remember what happened in the moment. I don’t remember what happened anyway, but the amount of foolishness that can happen in a show where everybody dies is just awesome. So yeah, they pretty much had me in at the jump.
You’ve played in front of a live audience before because you played at one of the Critical Role live shows. What was it like playing for an audience that had actual input on the game with this?
Khary Payton: Oh, you know what? It’s funny, I didn’t even think of it that way because I feel like in a way the DM is the audience always. And so somebody is always watching who has input. You know what I mean? The DM is the one who’s usually taking the grenade and throwing it and seeing what happens with the players when they play. So this was just an added layer of that, but it didn’t feel so foreign. It felt like, if you’re sitting around the table, you should be participating.
I think that’s the thing about D&D. And having a live audience is always fun because just the fact that they’re there creates an atmosphere. When you’re recording actual play and you’re doing it remotely, you forget that anybody’s watching. But when there’s an actual audience there, that’s the fun thing, is that you can feel that energy.
Definitely. And then can you talk to me a little bit about working with the Beadle & Grimm’s guys on the show?
Khary Payton: They’re so much fun. They love D&D so much. They love the game itself, and it’s just about how much fun you can have with it. And for me, it’s like, every time I start to play, you sit down and you think that you are just going to have a normal, good time for some reason. I feel like I’m sitting down and we’re playing a game and I’m sort of excited. But once you start actually getting into the game, it’s like that moment of Willy Wonka where he opens the doors. It’s like, “Okay, here, we’re at the factory again. Yeah, yeah! It’s a factory. It’s a chocolate factory, blah, blah, blah.” And then the doors open and you’re like, “No, it’s not. It’s f-cking unimaginably beautiful.”
Every time you sit down, your imagination just starts to come alive, and it becomes unimaginably beautiful. And those guys love that aspect of the D&D experience, and we’re just exploring another amazing room in the Wonka factory. And with Beadle and Grimm’s and the D&D adventures and channel and everything, they put in the right amount of… What do you say? What’s the word I’m looking for? The bells and whistles. What do you mean? God, it’s like right on the tip of my tongue. It’s something simple. But they put a little money into these shows, but it’s just the right amount to help you enhance the flavor.
They’re not trying to overtake it. They’re not trying to CGI monsters in the background to make it come alive for you. They understand that the thing that makes this great is that storytellers are telling the story, and we all can see it in our mind. If you love D&D, you love the fact that it all comes alive in your head, and it’s like they give you just enough… Dammit! I don’t know what the word is. I’m going to call you back. I’m going to text you. I’m going to be like, “This is the word that I was thinking of.” Something value. Production value. Production value! Production value.
They give you just enough production value to put a little season on top, to put a little sprinkle on top, but not to overtake what D&D is, which is all about the imagination, is all about that you and I are looking at each other and there’s nothing between us. It’s all happening in our heads, but we all see it and thrive on that. And of course, Matt Lillard, his energy is crazy. He’s tall and lanky, but the molecules are just bouncing all inside. He’s like this vessel where it’s just bouncing back and forth all over the place, and you can’t help but be like, “Oh, my God! I’ve got to get my energy. I’ve got to go with this guy, wherever he’s going.”
I love it. And then one of my favorite dynamics at the table was you and Gabe and how you would play off of each other. Can you talk about this table in particular a little bit? Because you guys had such a quick, silly dynamic that came together almost instantly.
Khary Payton: Gabe’s my boy, man. He had me tripping. I do remember that. I do remember from across the table, it was like, “What’s happening?” We were either very off or right there together.
Yeah. I met everybody a few minutes before. We were like, “Hey, how you doing?” We put on microphones and we jumped in. I think Gabe and I had a couple of people in common that we knew, but I hadn’t really known anybody before that. I think I barely talked to Justice at all before he walked in and started reading. And I was like, “Okay, here we go! This is my DM. Nice to meet you. Here we go.” And so I just think it was cool that everybody was just down to clown, just ready to play.
And I guess that’s why it popped off so easily, honestly. I mean, Gabe feels like a cousin. Gabe feels like just short of family. We come from about the same… We didn’t grow up in the same area, but man, it feels like we’ve got family in common. There was a shared experience growing up that made it feel like… Oh, I think that’s a truck outside. Here, I’m going to… That was awfully loud. But yeah, yeah, yeah. Gabe and I were vibing from the get-go.
So much so, Gabe had these cool heram pants on, and I was like, “Where’d you get those pants?” I immediately went and bought his pants. That’s how on the same level Gabe and I are. I was walking around here looking like Aladdin, very easy-breezy. I haven’t had them on for a month or so because it got cold, but once it starts to warm back up, I’m putting my Gabe pants back on.
Lillard popped in to play a portal that wanted gossip to let you through, and you guys were not great at giving him gossip.
Khary Payton: Oh my God, I was so bad at it. You know what? Oh, man. I remember this part, and it really pissed me off because I had actually been forced to watch Kardashians, the Kardashians. So their sad, boring version of gossip between their family, like, “I’m so mad at her right now,” that kind of thing that I was literally like… The whole time, this is what I remember from the show.
The whole time, me driving home was being like, “Why didn’t I cut one of their heads off? I could’ve cut a Kardashian’s head off.” And I was so angry with myself. I was like, I had been lulled into this boring version of what gossip is by that show. And I was like, “I could have cut their heads off. Off with all their heads!” This is what could have happened. Literally. You can tell. I’m still upset about it, that I was not broadcast cutting Khloe’s…
I kind of empathize with Khloe a little bit. Which is the one? Kourtney. Kourtney? She’s a beautiful woman, but man, she needs to get an appendage cut off of her. She’s crazy. She’s the worst. And so I was like, man, “I could have cut off Kourtney’s head.” I just wasn’t fast enough. I want to apologize to Matt Lillard and the rest of the Faster, Purple Worm Kill community that I did not cut off a Kardashian’s head during the making of our show. I apologize. Can you make sure that that gets on me?
I will include that, for sure.
Khary Payton: Okay. Yes, please make sure that, because that truly comes from deep inside my heart. I feel like if I cut off her head and it grew back that perhaps, like the Grinch, her head would grow three sizes that day and be a better person for it. It may all be that they’re just trying to make good television and this family strife is not nearly as bad as it seems, but in my short time of being forced to watch that show, I think a good beheading would’ve… With the head growing back, of course. Don’t make it seem like I’m trying to behead actual people, but a philosophical and metaphysical beheading. Like I said, I truly missed the mark on that, and I just want to say.”
That’s so great. And I have to shift gears for just a second because when my coworker found out I was interviewing you, he got beyond excited because he’s a huge Walking Dead fan.
Khary Payton: Oh, cool.
So he wanted me to ask you, with The Walking Dead universe expanding through all of these spin-offs, is there anything from Ezekiel’s story that you’d like to see explored further?
Khary Payton: Yeah, I would. I absolutely would. I really would love to go back in time and explore how Ezekiel came to become a king in the apocalypse. Do a Better Call Saul prequel and see how someone goes from being a zookeeper to having people decide that we’re going to listen to his outrageous idea of how you rebuild society, and how somebody comes to decide that, “Yeah, this seems to be working. I’m going to run with this.”
I think it would be actually really interesting, but I have no idea what their plans are. And if they do it, I would love to be a part of it. But I’m also a realist when it comes to these things, and I told myself, “All good things come to an end.” It’s not the first time or the last time I’ve said goodbye to an awesome story that I was telling. And so I’m hoping that it’ll come back around.
But in the meantime, the beautiful thing about my job is the wondrous variety. And so I’m excited to see what happens next. But man, if they call saying they want to do something like that with Ezekiel, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.
Oh, that’s so great. And then I’m also a huge Encounter Party fan. I think you are fantastic on it.
Khary Payton: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
And I know your character holds a very special place in your heart. Could you tell me a little bit about that character creation process?
Khary Payton: Yeah, yeah. It’s funny, when they asked me to do Encounter Party… I’m sort of an anti-establishment kind of guy, and I was like, “Yeah, I’ll do Dungeons and Dragons. But with the people who made Dungeons and Dragons? No, I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to do that. I’m subversive. I’m not going to do it with the man.” And then I met the cast of Encounter Party and the producers, and they’re just fantastic people, fantastic people. And I was like, “Okay, you know what? I can actually play with these guys. These guys just fricking love D&D the way that I love storytelling, and I can see us really doing something really cool and special.”
But then in my head, I was like, “Okay, well, I’ll make a character, but I’m not going to give you my favorite character. I’m not going to let you have my deep, inner stuff. I’m going to give you some side hustle, but I’m not going to give the man my stuff.” And then of course, just like all of us do, once you start building a character, you can’t help but become invested. And I thought that this would be a really important moment. I was like, “When else am I going to be able to create a character that is going to be officially in the pantheon of Dungeons and Dragons?” This goes in the book. Tolo goes in the book of Dungeons & Dragons now, and you can’t take him out. He is canon.
And even now as I’m telling you this, I get very emotional about it because there are just so many marginalized communities. There are people that want to pretend like they don’t exist. And I base Tolo partly on my son who’s transgender. Tolo is born biologically female, is in her heart, head, and soul, male. And because D&D, we live in a world of magic, the possibilities are endless. And so the struggle and the fight that is going on with so many transgender kids, I was like, “You get to have magic. You get to imbue your rage with shimmering magic. The struggle and the fight that goes on within yourself when you’re trying to figure out who you are…” And the answers aren’t easy.
And nobody knows. At some point how do you talk to somebody? How do you even know that. Even though my son was pretty young when he was introduced to the idea of being transgender, but so many nights he told me, he would go to sleep just hoping he would wake up as the person his brain was telling him he was. And there was a sadness and a loneliness he was living with that I had no idea about. And so I wanted that lonely conversation that people have by themselves, I was like, “Here’s a moment where I can say it out loud and they can do that Leonardo DiCaprio meme where he’s like [POINTING]. That’s me. I know that feeling!” And know that they’re not alone.
And so instead of being me not giving my favorite, deepest part of me, I literally, I don’t know, two or three days into me deciding what kind of character to come up with. I was like, “I want this character to speak to my son and people like him, and anyone who’s been marginalized and felt alone and quiet and not understanding their journey.” I wanted this to speak to them. I didn’t even tell the producers at first because I didn’t want anybody to tell me no. I was like, “Nobody is going to tell me no.”
Even if they did tell me no, I was like, it was going to come out on the table. I was going to say what I was going to say. And as I got to know the producers and the DM, Brian David Judkins, I realized that I could trust him with that information. And so I ended up telling him eventually. I was like, “Nobody’s going to come down from on high and tell me that this isn’t happening,” because it became such an important thing to me, and it became why I was doing the show in the first place.
So that was the journey of me… It went from me being like, “I’ll give you the scraps from my table,” to me pulling out this big, huge pheasant and being like, “I’ve roasted this over the course of many moons,” giving a piece of my heart to this production. And I think that it’s really paid off. It’s been incredibly gratifying to me to be able to play Tolo. I wanted to name him Ptolemy actually, after the African philosopher, but they were like, “No, that’s real, you’ve got to come up with a name that isn’t out there.” And I was like, “Okay, we’ll just shorten it to Tolo.” And I think it actually fits him really well.
It’s such a powerful story, and I absolutely love the reveal. I love all the D&D stuff you’re in. Faster, Purple Worm! is so great, Encounter Party’s amazing, and I really hope we see Shakäste pop up in Mighty Nein because he’s one of my favorites.
Khary Payton: Yeah. Yeah. I’m really excited about it. I’m excited to see… I feel like it’d be hard to do… I mean, it wouldn’t be hard, but why would you? Why would you leave Shakäste out of that? So I’ve got a good feeling that Shakäste in animated form is in our future, and I’m really excited about that. I don’t know what it was. I knew that because I’d been shaving my head for years, putting the wig on for King Ezekiel in The Walking Dead. So I just really missed my afro. I wanted a big, billowy afro.
And living in Southern California, I feel like I’ve had all of these run-ins with hummingbirds. I’ve had a couple of hummingbirds fly into my house. So I was just enamored of hummingbirds, and I wanted to see through the eyes of a hummingbird. And from there it was just like, you just kind of go. And yeah, it was one of my favorite things that I’ve ever come up with.
And of course, playing with Matt and everybody, they’re all just such wonderful people. I’ve been really amazed at my luck with… And everybody knows or feels like they know the crew of Critical Tole because their hearts are right out there on the table for the last, what, eight, nine years. And I feel like I really lucked out with Encounter Party that I found such a heartfelt group of people.
They started out doing this show in Brian’s living room years ago and did the same thing we did. We just recorded eight hours a day straight for a few weeks, and then edited a bunch of episodes to do their first campaign. It was just this labor of love. They all wanted to do it. They all wanted to tell a story that people connected with. And you can tell that they have a heart and a passion for this, like so many people do. But they’re also great storytellers, in such very different ways. Like Andrew Krug, who sits next to me who plays Dryddian, he’s like nobody I’ve played with. He’s so laid back, he’s so calm, which is very different from me. I love that the energy can switch to him.
There’s a moment that hasn’t come around, and he says the simplest thing. And as he starts to explain what he’s saying, by that time I knew what he was saying without him having to say anything else. He was like that man of few words. Soft-spoken but carry a big stick, literally, for a woodland elf. But I just love all of those guys, and I’ve been really lucky to run into just beautiful soul after beautiful soul when it comes to D&D.
So yeah, I’m excited to continue the journey. You know what I mean? I feel like I walked into Willy Wonka’s factory and they gave me a key, and we’re like, “Anytime, man, come on in.” And so I’ve been hanging out in the factory for a few years now, and I’m hoping that I get to keep telling these stories.
About Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!
“Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!” serves up comedic mayhem with tabletop gaming stars and celebrity guest players, including Seth Green, Anjali Bhimani, Skeet Ulrich, Sean Gunn, Mica Burton, Patton Oswalt and series co-creator Matthew Lillard. Perfect for seasoned gamers and newbies alike, every episode features an improvised, stand-alone story along with epic, hilarious character deaths
Check out our other Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! interviews:
- Matthew Lillard
- Bill Rehor, Jon Ciccolini, Charlie Rehor, and Paul Shapiro
- Matthew Lillard and Bill Rehor
- Anjali Bhimani
- Aabria Iyengar & Gina DeVivo
- Deborah Ann Woll
- Jasmine Bhullar
- Matthew Lillard on episode 7
- Alicia Marie
- David Dastmalchian
Luis Carazo
Source: Screen Rant Plus
Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!
Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill! is a comedy series focusing on Dungeons and Dragons. The improv series begins each episode with first-level characters who battle incredibly powerful Dungeons and Dragons monsters. Guest stars on the show include Matthew Lillard, Deborah Ann Woll, and Seth Green.
- Release Date
- November 1, 2023
- Cast
- Deborah Ann Woll , Matthew Lillard , Seth Green , Jon Cellini , Steve Agee , William Rehor , Luis Carazo , Noura Ibrahim , Kate Welch , Lou Wilson , Ify Nwadiwe
- Seasons
- 1
- Franchise(s)
- Dungeons & Dragons
- Directors
- John Platt , Adam Rady , Zach L. Wilson , Mei Wang
