Don’t get me wrong. I adore HBO’s The Last of Us. The thing is, I loved the original video games going into the show. While the TV series is brilliant, the adaptation is not what makes me love that story. Whereas when it comes to Netflix’s Arcane, set in the world of Riot Games’ League of Legends, I’ve never been particularly interested in the game, but I adore the compelling, emotionally affecting show.
The adaptation itself is worthwhile, whether you’ve played League of Legends or not. Think pieces galore cite The Last of Us as a turning point for quality game adaptations. But we’ve already had great ones. Arcane is one of them.
A first look at season two of Arcane!
Netflix just released an intriguing “First Look” at season two of Arcane, which will be arriving on the streamer in November:
In it, we see Singed (Brett Tucker) in a chair seemingly coming in and out of consciousness while engaged in more science experiment f*ckery. He’s in the middle of some kind of strange blood transfusion, blood traveling from his arm down some tubes into some larger glass canisters…but to what end?
It isn’t until the final shot of the dialogue-free clip that we see the end point of all the traveling blood and fluid. A large, mutated monster is hanging from the ceiling. If you are familiar with League of Legends lore, and if you look closely at the feet, the head, and the telltale glowing green canister coming out of its back, you might recognize who it is.
Holy crap, is that….?
After lots of fan speculation, it looks pretty definitive that Warwick will be joining the story of Arcane in the show’s second season. So, who is Warwick, anyway?
Warwick, aka Subject #1088, is a character from League of Legends with some compelling and traumatic backstory. Warwick was born human, and had been a gangster who ended up trying to live a better life and walk the straight and narrow.
When Singed went looking for a new subject for his experiments in transmutation, however, he saw in Warwick a “beast.” According to the in-universe story, “Engineering the Nightmare,” Singed wrote that he, “Procured a cutthroat hiding among the populace and feigning civility. Only a disciplined eye could recognize the beast within, yearning for release. How could I refuse? For what is my work if not an attempt to reveal life’s hidden truths through science?”
Singed’s experiments end up turning this reformed criminal into a bloodthirsty, wrathful lycan in constant pain for whom the very smell of blood will cause a frenzy that assures the bleeding person’s death. Thankfully, he only seems to seek out the criminals of Zaun when looking to feed. At least he has a code, I guess?
When are we getting a second season of Arcane?
Back in November 2023, Variety reported that Netflix has officially announced that season 2 of Arcane will arrive on the streamer in November 2024! While they didn’t announce a specific date, at least we now know what month we can expect it. This makes sense, as fans of the show have been speculating online that November is a likely premiere month, as it would not only be in line with when the show’s first season premiered, but also line up with League of Legends‘ 15th anniversary.
Turns out that the fans were right!
Back in September, SFX reported that Tencent, League of Legends‘ Chinese parent company, announced at their Video V Vision Conference that season two of Arcane would be arriving in Q4 of 2024. So it seems that Fall was always likely, and as progress has been made on the season (and now that the SAG-AFTRA strike is officially over), the companies involved have been able to zero in on more exact timing.
Arcane‘s nine-episode first season was Netflix’s highest-rated series within a week of its premiere, ranked first on the Netflix Top 10 Chart in 52 countries, and ranked second on the chart in the United States. So, it would’ve been foolish for the streamer not to give the series another season.
Back in November 2021, shortly after Arcane‘s first season ended, the League of Legends YouTube channel released this video announcing that season 2 of Arcane was in production!
According to then-Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent, it took them six years to make the first season of the show. And while he said it shouldn’t take that long for season 2, he also said that it wouldn’t be happening in 2022:
It is now 2023, and Laurent has transitioned out of his position at Riot Games and into an advisory role to focus on family and move back to France. As reported by The Verge, Riot Games’ Global President Dylan Jadeja has stepped into the CEO role.
It’s unclear how (or if) this changing of the guard has impacted production on Arcane, but it’s heartening to know that despite needing to wait a year, there’s a definite end in sight.
What can we expect from Arcane season 2?
The first season of Arcane focused on the relationship between orphaned sisters Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder (voiced by Ella Purnell) who struggle to survive the brewing tensions between the wealthy city of Piltover and its oppressed underbelly, the city of Zaun. As young Vi and Powder get older, are separated through misunderstanding, and grow up under very different influences, they end up on opposing sides of Piltover and Zaun’s clashes over class, power, and arcane technologies.
The season ends with Powder having grown into a new, unstable persona and going by the name Jinx. Try though she does to reach Jinx, Vi pushes too far and after some traumatic events, Jinx fully embraces her new self and commits an explosive act of terrorism.
Season 2, then, would likely be dealing with the aftermath of that. Who survived Jinx’s attack? Will Zaun gain independence from Piltover? And most importantly, will Vi and Jinx ever be sisters again?
According to Kevin Alejandro (voice of Jayce Talis) in an interview with Buzzfeed, season 2 will be worth the wait:
“You’re going to be on the edge of your seats. You’re going to be conflicted in such a way that I don’t know if it’s good or bad. Like, your emotions will be pulled out of you and you’ll be like ‘OH MY GOD!’ That’s how you’re going to end. It’s so good! This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever been part of.”
What about the cast and characters of Arcane season 2?
While the first season two video announcement above featured no show visuals, it did feature snippets of dialogue from various characters. Digital Spy reported that one bit toward the end was particularly significant:
“Arcane fans are convinced they can hear the mechanical heartbeat of League of Legends’ champion Warwick, a part-werewolf, part-machine who doesn’t remember his life before he was experimented on in scientist Singed’s laboratory.”
So yes, fans have been speculating about Warwick since last year, and it looks like they were right to do so!
Sadly, we still have to wait the better part of a year for a new season of Arcane to drop. Thankfully, the brilliant first season is available to watch as much as we want on Netflix.
And who knows? Maybe I’ll even give the game a whirl.
(featured image: Netflix)
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