Arcane Season 2 is the final chapter in the story of Jinx, Vi, and Caitlyn's adventures on Netflix, but the show's co-creators have shared their favorite stories from the League of Legends universe, which could inspire future spin-offs.
Speaking to showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee ahead of the first drop in the Arcane Season 2 release schedule, I asked which stories in the broader League of Legends universe were their favorites. With Arcane set to end with Season 2, Linke has already revealed that there are other stories in the franchise the pair hopes to tell one day. While neither was ready to confirm their plans for a new show, they did have some narrative highlights to share.
"There's a lot," Linke admits. "We both played the game for a long, long time, and you have different kinds of characters and regions." While claiming that "there's too many to say 'this is gonna be the next one', Linke does point to Noxus, the warmongering nation that Arcane character Ambessa Medarda hails from. The Noxians are name-dropped in Arcane many times, but Linke points to their conflicts with two other in-universe nations - Demacia and Ionia - which dominated much of League of Legends' earliest storytelling.
"I think Demacia/Noxus is dope," Linke says, "I think the Noxus Ionia invasion is really interesting," noting a fan-theory that's already convinced me about the direction a new series might go. He also loves Bilgewater, a pirate haven that's already been explored in detail in spin-off game Ruined King: "I feel like I'm ready for another pirate story," he says. He also notes that his own favorite in-game character is Heimerdinger, who hails from the whimsical land of Bandle City.
As for Yee, he points to the Freljord, a harsh frozen tundra with a story dominated by three warring tribes. That story has also been told elsewhere, in Riot Games' crossover with Marvel Comics, in a series that focuses on long-time character Ashe, the peace-seeking leader of one of those tribes.
Neither creator, however, is giving anything away about any actual future projects. Linke, in fact, says this period - with Season 2 on its way out the door and no future projects confirmed - "is the time for us to really explore, to see what kind of stories we can develop, and see what's possible. It's still pretty open."
Arcane season 2 first reactions say the Netflix show has "upped the ante in every way imaginable."
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.