Did A New League Of Legends Trailer Just Tease An Arcane Sequel?
"Arcane" felt like a shock to the system of TV animation. It's an epic sci-fi series with unprecedented production design that can stand toe-to-toe with any big-budget blockbuster feature. That's to mention nothing of its large-scale story, which centers on an entire city that's revolutionized by the discovery of arcane technology, all the while telling a poignant and compelling tale about two sisters growing apart due to tragedy.
The first season of "Arcande" did for TV animation what "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" did for films. It promised a radical future for animation where series are allowed to experiment with 3D, live-action filmmaking techniques can be applied to the animation medium, and even the very format of 30 minutes an episode could change in favor of hour-long episodes like prestige dramas. It's also no wonder the show looks so extraordinarily good, having cost just as much to make as a live-action blockbuster movie. That's right, "Arcane" is unsurprisingly the most expensive animated show of all time. Just as the first season shocked audiences, delivering a surprisingly great adaptation of the hugely popular "League of Legends" video game, audiences were once again caught off-guard when Netflix and Riot Games announced they were ending "Arcane" with its second season.
Originally, the plan was for "Arcane" to run five seasons rather than two — something that's painfully evident in the awful pacing of the second season, which tries to condense multiple seasons' worth of storylines into just nine episodes, leaving many questions unanswered and the entire future of Riot Games' TV output (along with the fate of any other "League of Legends" TV shows) up in the air. That was, until, this week when Riot Games and Studio Fortiche, which produced and animated "Arcane," released a cinematic trailer for the next competitive season of "League of Legends." Titled "Welcome to Noxus," the trailer is exactly what you might expect from this sort of cinematic, complete with cool battles showing fan-favorite champions and a showcase of the various locations that will be the focus of the new season.
What makes the trailer intriguing, however, is that it has the same visual style and quality as "Arcane," along with a surprising amount of story that includes direct references to the animated series.
Is this just an epilogue? Or a tease of what's to come?
The first hint that the trailer might be more than just a cool promotion for the game comes the moment we see Mel — the council member from Piltover and one of the main characters in "Arcane" — walk through some Noxus ruins. Her arc in season 2 ended with her seemingly fulfilling her mother's role in the Noxus army and presumably her resolve to investigate the mysterious Black Rose faction, clearly teasing a bigger story that was left unexplored.
The trailer still includes nifty fights that have little (if anything) to do with "Arcane," showing champions Trundle and Darius engaged in an icy battle on the region of Freljord from the games. Even so, it's the last bit of the trailer that raises some big questions. We not only see the leaders of the Black Rose, LeBlanc and Vladimir, talking (complete with brand new designs that are less like their in-game appearances and more in lien with "Arcane"), but LeBlanc even outright references the events in Piltover, making it clear the trailer takes place after the deadly events of "Arcane" season 2.
This is, at the very least, a neat epilogue showing that the effects of season 2 rippled across the world of Runeterra. Given the focus on Noxus in the second season of "Arcane," and the fact that Riot Games reportedly has three new "League of Legends" TV shows currently in development, it could be that this trailer is also a bit of a pitch for the future of the franchise, ie. a tease of what could be. Yes, "Arcane" was the most expensive animated TV show of all time, and a financially irresponsible production. But Riot Games is one of the biggest gaming companies on the planet, so it has the money to spare. Bring on another season, you cowards!