Last year, right around this time, the first three episodes of Arcane dropped on Netflix, and at the end of November all three arcs, consisting of nine episodes total, had been released. Fans and critics praised the animation style, rewritten lore, emotional arcs, and any number of delightful details that made Arcane into a hit show.
I, someone who knows nothing about League of Legends, evangelized for this show, forcing it on friends who likewise knew nothing about League of Legends, and soon my whole group of friends were divided into a few overlapping camps of; “Vi has done nothing wrong in her life, ever, probably,” “Jayce and Vikor are boyfriends, right?,” “Silco apologists,” and “ Jinx?!?!”
Now, a year after its release, Arcane is celebrating its one-year anniversary with a series of events that include an AMA on Reddit, a merch drop with Rocklove, and some extra goodies kept under wraps. The AMA happened last night, and we’ve been able to pull out some great information about the upcoming Season Two, which is rumoured to air sometime in 2023–a far cry from the six years it took to make the first season.
Riot’s Christian Linke and Alex Yee revealed that they want to release the scripts to season one, but some of them includes spoilers for season two — and many were re-written and adjusted over the six year development period it took to bring Arcane to life, so they needed to go through and make sure that anything they let out to the public doesn’t reveal anything too spoilery. There is also an art book in the works! There’s no update on when or where it’ll come from, but it’s something that is currently in process.
One of the great reveals was that Season 2 will include flashbacks–it’s not clear based on the answer whether or not theses will be related to when Vander and Silco were allied, or if it will show moments of Silco being a father to Powder/Jinx, but it is on the slate to happen, which is very exciting for me, someone who was firmly in the “Silco Apologist” camp. “We’ve always liked the relationship between Silco and Vander. It’s the original rift that informs the generational split between the sisters. I’ll just say, it’s a story we’d like to tell,” said Yee. Additionally, they said that while they wanted to explore other regions, it was clear there was still so much left of Zaun and Piltover to explore–they wanted to really earn the ability to explore other parts of the world. “So definitely coming in the future, but we have to find the right pace for the story we wanna tell.”
Other details about Season 2 we were able to glean from the AMA: there will be more Ekko and Jinx interactions, it is “solidly possible” that Mel Medarda will return, there will be magic, and when asked “will we ever see Vi’s abs,” Yee responded “I’ll put in a request.”
Describing the series as “Grimsical,” both Linke and Yee seemed excited to interact with the fans and answer deep questions about lore, characterization, and storytelling that went far deeper than the initial source material. You can read the Reddit AMA here, and also watch Bridging the Rift–a documentary series on YouTube that describes the six-year making-of Arcane.
Arcane Season 1 is currently available to stream on Netflix.
Want more Gizmodo news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.