Arcane League of Legends: Netflix’s Most Ambitious Animated Series?

An origin story

Even if League of Legends is known to everyone, or almost, a reminder can’t hurt. League of Legends or LoL for Insiders is a MOBA. It’s a genre that sees two teams and their champions compete in a closed arena with the goal of destroying a particular artifact. Now that that is said, let’s move on to the Arcane series.

Unsurprisingly, Arcane is in a way a prequel to League of Legends, and more precisely an Origin Story, whether in terms of characters, and even intrigues and other technologies that characterize the universe of LoL. The character of Jinx, essential to the plot and much appreciated by fans of the game, symbolizes this vision of the project.

The Jinx we know from the game forms the basis. Not much has changed, but that’s where it ends. We go back in time a bit to dig deeper into everything we already know. We start from childhood. She is about seven or eight years old when we discover Arcane. Then throughout the season, we see her grow into an adult or a woman and become the “crazy” Jinx we all know and love. – Ella Purnell (actress – Jinx)

The mere presence of Powder says a lot about Riot Games’ strategy. The Arcane series wants to please fans and seduce a new audience by introducing the protagonists as they should. Once again, Jinx is at the heart of this strategy.

Powder is obviously Jinx before she was Jinx. I think Powder is a badass before she knew she was a badass. (…) She is 100% Jinx before she knows she is. – Mia Sinclair Jenness (actress – Powder)

The Arcane series does not skimp on the action, but wants to be above all a human and social drama. The choice to take the areas of Piltover and Zaun as a framework is not trivial… quite the contrary. Viktor weaves a link between the two environments. Arcane tells how this young scientist became by force of circumstances a Hextech champion of LoL consecrated by the players.

Viktor, when you meet him, is not the Viktor that people familiar with the game will necessarily recognize. He’s a young scientist from Zaun, but working in Piltover. – Harry Lloyd (actor – Viktor)

A long-standing project

The desire to expand the universe of League of Legends is not new. Riot Games has been expressing its desire to enrich the world of Runeterra through video games for several years, but not only, and the Arcane series is the perfect example. For information, the project was launched 6 years ago … in 2015.

This project definitely started with Riot several moons ago. (…) You observe what you have in front of you, that is to say this incredible Fortiche studio, then the ability to have these characters that so many people love. (…) And you realize that it has never been done on this scale, and it becomes a challenge for many years. This is how it all started … just the dream of the fans who play the game, who love these characters. – Christian Link (Creator and Executive Producer – Riot Games)

The challenge presented by the Arcane series is considerable. It’s about keeping fans happy who can be finicky while reaching out to a larger audience. Riot Games is well aware of this. Developing such a universe requires a long-term vision and a certain dose of ambition. From there to talking about a League of Legends Cinematic Universe, there is only one step. One thing is certain… The creators of the series have ideas to spare.

We still have to prove that the series will be successful, that the series will resonate with our audiences. For now, you can safely assume that we have enough dreams to tell more stories and delve into a lot of the characters. – Christian Link (Creator and Executive Producer – Riot Games)

An ambitious series made in France

The Arcane series is overseen by Riot Games, but its production is entrusted to Fortiche, whom League of Legends fans surely know for their music videos… of the Get Jinxed genre. The first collaboration between the Parisian studio created in 2009 and Riot dates back to 2013, and trust between the two entities is essential.

I would say that the collaboration was quite free. That’s really how I would define it in the sense that there was mutual trust on the part of Riot and Fortiche which allowed us to work in excellent conditions. – Barthelemy Maunoury (Animation director – Fortiche)

We would be right to think that Riot Games secures its universe, so that nothing goes out of the box. On the contrary, Fortiche has, so to speak, carte blanche. The animation studio must respect the characters, what they represent, and certain elements of the lore. For the rest, the Parisian creatives were free throughout the project, and even invited to shake up the codes of lore.

All the slightly original proposals were understood and accepted. It was really quite exceptional. – Barthelemy Maunoury (Animation director – Fortiche)

The Arcane series is no less than 9 episodes with a duration of around 40 minutes for a total of 342 minutes of animation with a quality close to a feature film intended for the cinema. Such is in figures the ambition of Riot Games and Fortiche. The French studio has a vision of its own and an artistic style that goes beyond its sole DA skilfully mixing 2D and 3D.

I would say that it is more in the direction, in the references which are much more resulting from the real shooting than from the animation itself, and the tone a little more adult or mature of the series. Indeed, there is this artistic direction. Fortiche is known for that. But I think you will see by watching the series that this Fortiche paw is also located elsewhere, in this staging and in this tone. – Barthelemy Maunoury (Animation director – Fortiche)

An extension of the universe

For several years, the world of Runeterra remained the preserve of League of Legends before finally opening its doors to a whole series of games and in 2021 an animated series. It is not always easy to fit such a different element into a lore which by definition is complex, and Riot Games constantly asks these kinds of questions.

I think that’s something we’ve always wondered about internally at Riot. “What is the ‘present’ of the world?” “Is there a ‘present’?” In many ways the Arcane series exists on its own as it puts some of these questions to the test. – Alex Yee (Creator and Co-Executive Producer – Riot Games)

Between the Canon branch and the Legends branch, a bit like with Star Wars, the LoL universe is constantly evolving, even if it means sometimes encountering some inconsistencies. The Arcane series is no exception to the rule. Decisions were thus taken for the good of the story and the characters.

We absolutely had to take liberties. When you design a versus game world, the story is just different. There are things that our audience really cares about. We had to pay attention to it and respect that. It was more about the characters than anything else. (…) Things had to be changed a bit to be able to build a real story, and that also affects the world and the characters. – Christian Link (Creator and Executive Producer)

If Jinx makes the link between the game and the series, several characters are original creations born to serve the plot. Particular care has been taken with some of them including Vander… the symbol of Zaun… the underground district.

Vander is the unofficial leader of the Zaun community. (…) He is the father figure of this band of heterogeneous teenagers gone a little crazy, and he has been raising them for a long time. He begins to lose control slightly as they gain independence. – JB Blanc (actor – Vander)

A new era for Runeterra

The birth of an animated series in the universe of Runeterra is a golden opportunity for games also taking roots there to expand their content with, among other things, the addition of free skins inspired by Arcane and why not eventually new champions. Riot Games leaves nothing to chance.

We set out to create options and opportunities for the games teams so that if there are things that they are really interested in and the audience like, they can grab those characters and use them. – Alex Yee (Creator and Co-Executive Producer – Riot Games)

Between League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, Ruined King and the MMORPG, the universe imagined by Riot Games is becoming more and more important. But a question remains. How to forge a lasting link between games, comics and series?

That’s the million dollar or multi-million dollar question. What we talk about a lot within the company are sort of basic truths, things that we think (…) that everyone takes as sacred about regions and people. This is something that we are still learning. (…) Honestly, this is an ongoing question, but it is certainly a question that we ask ourselves and that we really focus on so that we can create the best experience for the players. – Alex Yee (Creator and Co-Executive Producer – Riot Games)

Riot Games and Fortiche clearly haven’t done things by halves. The Arcane series heralds a new era for League of Legends and Runeterra.