Arcane (titled onscreen as Arcane: League of Legends) is an animated steampunk action-adventure television series created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee. It was produced by the French animation studio Fortiche under the supervision of Riot Games, and distributed by Netflix. Set in Riot's League of Legends fictional universe, it primarily focuses on sisters Vi and Jinx. The series was announced at the League of Legends 10th anniversary celebration in 2019, and first released in November 2021. Following the conclusion of the first season, Riot Games and Netflix announced that a second season was in production.
Arcanes first season was released to universal acclaim, with praise directed at its animation, story, worldbuilding, action sequences, characters, emotional weight, music, and voice acting. Some have noted the series' appeal both to casual viewers who have never played League of Legends and to long-time fans of the game. It also set the record as Netflix's highest-rated series at the time 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. Several critics and publications considered it one of the best video game adaptations ever made. In 2022, the series became the first streaming series to win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program and won an Annie Award for Best General Audience Animated Television Broadcast Production.
Premise
Amidst the escalating unrest between the rich, utopian city of Piltover and its seedy, oppressed underbelly of Zaun, sisters Vi and Jinx find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing conflict over clashing convictions and arcane technologies.
Cast and characters
Main
Hailee Steinfeld as Violet "Vi" Ella Purnell as Powder / Jinx Mia Sinclair Jenness as young Powder Kevin Alejandro as Jayce Talis Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman Molly Harris as young Caitlyn Kiramman Jason Spisak as Silco Toks Olagundoye as Mel Medarda Harry Lloyd as Viktor JB Blanc as Vander Reed Shannon as Ekko Miles Brown as young Ekko Mick Wingert as Cecil B. Heimerdinger
Supporting
Amirah Vann as Sevika
Remy Hii as Marcus and Tobias Kiramman
Abigail Marlowe as Cassandra Kiramman and Eve
Yuri Lowenthal as Mylo
Roger Craig Smith as Claggor
Josh Keaton as Deckard and Salo
Fred Tatasciore as Benzo
Bill Lobley as Huck
Shohreh Aghdashloo as Grayson
Brett Tucker as Singed
Mara Junot as Shoola and Jules
Dave B. Mitchell as Vern, Hoskel, and Harold
Miyavi as Finn
Erica Lindbeck as Elora
Ellen Thomas as Ambessa Medarda
Mira Furlan as Babette
Kimberly Brooks as Sky Young
Imagine Dragons as The Last Drop band
JID as The Last Drop band rapper
Ray Chen as orchestra concert soloist
Episodes
Production
Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent said it took six years to make the first season of Arcane.
Arcane's production differed from standard industry practice. The idea for Arcane first came from Christian Linke in 2015 after Riot had initially delved into other media to help strengthen the connections players had with the IP such as cinematic trailers and music videos. But at that point, none of the promotional content had any dialogue. Next, instead of finding a new animation studio that specialized in television animation, Riot decided to continue their partnership with Fortiche who had produced music videos for them. Riot also targeted the "adult-minded" animation market instead of more established markets for video game to television animation adaptations.
Arcane was first announced at the League of Legends 10th anniversary celebration in 2019, and is set in Riot's League of Legends fictional universe, In September 2021, it was announced that Hailee Steinfeld, Ella Purnell, Kevin Alejandro, Katie Leung, Jason Spisak, Toks Olagundoye, JB Blanc and Harry Lloyd had joined the voice cast.
On November 20, 2021, following the conclusion of Arcanes first season, Riot Games and Netflix announced that a second season was in production for a post-2022 release. In 2023, it was reported that the second season is set to premiere in Q4 2024.
Broadcast
Marketing
Riot Games promoted the launch of Arcane through events in their games, including League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, Teamfight Tactics, League of Legends: Wild Rift, and Valorant as "RiotX Arcane". It launched promotional collaborations with non-Riot games such as PUBG Mobile, Fortnite, and Among Us.