Netflix No. 1 Spot Arcane: Everything We Know About the League of Legends Series So Far

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After six long years of production, Riot Games has released its League of Legends miniseries adaptation ‘Arcane’ on Netflix. 

Having bagged no. 1 spot already (move over, Squid Game!) Arcane’s popularity is only going up while three episodes are batch-dropped over the next few weeks. Whether you’re contemplating if this League of Legends prequel is worth a watch, or anticipating the next episode releases: we’ve got all the details on release dates, story leaks, new characters, and more.

What is Arcane about?

Riot Games’ miniseries Arcane acts as a prequel — exploring the origins of some of the most well-known League of Legends champions: Jinx, Vi, and Jayce. The story delves into the relationship between sisters Jinx and Vi, while also exploring complicated issues of class struggle in twin cities Piltover and Zaun. 

The League of Legends universe remains the same: all action takes place in Runeterra, and LoL fans know the sisters’ rivalry in original game time. The show will explain much of what created friction between the characters and set the all-too-familiar scene in the League of Legends game. 

Arcane Episodes Release Dates

The Arcane miniseries follows an interesting episode release format. You don’t have an entire season ready to be binged, and you’re not kept on edge for a week for each episode either. 

Over three weeks, three episodes are batch dropped. Every three episodes form an Act. As of now, the first three episodes (Act 1) are available on Netflix. They were released on November 6th.

Arcane Act 2 Release Date: The next three episodes, Episodes 4-6 are going to be released together on Netflix on the 13th of November, 2021.

Arcane Act 3 Release Date: The final three Arcane episodes 7-9 are Arcane Act 3 and will be dropped on 20th November 2021. 

The game was initially planned to be released on Netflix back in 2020 but got consistently delayed until the next year due to the COVID19 pandemic. While it’s too early to predict the entire seasons’ reception, there’s a good chance Arcane will be renewed for a second season.

All the League of Legends Champions in Arcane

Fans have spotted 7 League of Legends champions in the first three episodes so far. Some have central character plots, while others are cameos for the League of Legends game players to pick up on.

Jinx

Jinx is the protagonist of Arcane, and the first three episodes dive into her early teenage years. Players of the game know her in her present-day form, a monster terrorist in Summoner’s Rift. We’ll likely get to see what drove her to her present form and understand the ‘Powder’ in Jinx.

Ella Purnell, most famous for her role in Miss Peregrine’s school for peculiar children, plays the character of Jinx/Powder.

Vi

Jinx’s older sister Vi is the second most important champion in Arcane and we see much more of her personality in the first three episodes. As of the third episode, her relationship with Jinx doesn’t explain their current-day feud, but we can expect much more of their relationship dynamic to develop and unfold.

Hailee Steinfield, by far the most noteworthy actor in the series, voices the role of Vi, Jinx’s elder sister.

Jayce

The much-beloved champion in Jayce gets his own backstory in Arcane as well. Jayce is an ‘idealist inventor’ who tries to blur the lines between magic and technology as a scientist in the developed modern city of Piltover.

Jayce is voiced by Kevin Alejandro and is said to appear more in the later episodes.

Caitlyn

Caitlyn also shares a lot of screen space with the other characters in Arcane. We see the childhood backstory of Piltover’s Enforcer. 

Caitlyn is played by Katie Leung. 

Viktor

In this League of Legends prequel, Viktor works alongside Jayce and has a while to go before he can transform into the half-machine we know him as. 

Heimerdinger

While Heimerdinger might not be the most significant champion in the game, Heimerdinger is a Professor at Piltover Academy and oversees Jayce and Viktor’s work.

Ekko

Ekko is just Jinx’s childhood friend in Arcane. However, this appearance is sowing the seeds for a larger character arc in the coming episodes. 

Arcane Trailer Clip

Riot Games released a previous trailer that included clips from the ‘Making of’. Although, they recently released a trailer clip to the song ‘A Score to settle’. Here’s the 18-second teaser:

Arcane Netflix — Reception

Arcane has already been declared IMDB’s #1 Netflix show globally. While it may not be the #1 position for Netflix in the United States, the global dominance makes this a much more watched show than competitors like Squid Game. 

The future success of the show lies completely on how well the fans receive it. It’ll be interesting to see if League of Legends players finds the show satisfactory to the extensive lore in the game. 

Riot Games decided not to make the Netflix series interactive, as well as produce the film in-house. They choose creatives who have been working on League of Legends for decades.

What’s Next for Arcane and Riot Games? 

After scoring the #1 Netflix spot in over 30 countries. Arcane is clearly a success, even with just 1/3rd of the show released. The number one question on people’s minds is if there’ll be a Season 2 for Arcane. 

Riot Games hasn’t made any promises for a second season. However, they have hinted that there might be more productions in the Runeterra universe. There is plenty more lore to discover, sequels and prequels alike in Runeterra, even if sisters Jinx and Vi’s journey comes to an end this season. 

“We have a huge opportunity to build amazing organic stories inside this world [Runeterra] and for [these stories] to quietly build and…define a generation,” Shauna Spenley, Riot’s president of entertainment says in an interview with LA Times.  “We’ll be here a while. It’s going to take a little time.”

Expansion of the Runeterra cinematic universe? The cards are definitely on the table.

While you’re waiting on League of Legends, check out the most picked Valorant agents in Episode 3 Act 2.