Netflix’s Arcane hit at just the right time when it first came onto the scene in 2021. Based on Riot Games’ long-running and very popular MOBA League of Legends, the show won over critics and audiences alike with its animation, writing, and voice work. And since it premiered as Riot was gradually making clear its plans to branch League out with various spinoffs, it wasn’t much of a surprise when the show was officially greenlit for a second season.
During the recent Video V Vision conference hosted by Tencent (the parent company of Riot Games), a graphic for Arcane was shown, and was later translated to confirm the show will return in winter 2024. Fans of the franchise have since speculated that it’ll officially make its debut in November—the first season began airing on November 6, 2021, which would have the two seasons rhyme. That’s also in the same space as the 15th birthday of League of Legends the game, which first released on October 27, 2009. If true, it’d be smart to time Arcane’s second season with the important milestone of its mothership franchise.
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Information on Arcane’s second season has been as quiet as Silco is dead, with the only real bit of news coming from Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent in April. When asked about the show’s production, he said animation studio Fortiche was “making progress,” though it wouldn’t be hitting this year. Part of that, he admitted, was because the team wasn’t prepared for Arcane to be as big of a sensation as it was. “We didn’t know if season one was gonna be a success,” Laurent continued. “If I had known we could have started season two way earlier, but we didn’t know so we kind of waited a bit and so now we’re paying the price, so it’s unfortunately not going to be this year.”
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Late last year, Arcane showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee teased that season two will feature flashbacks and shine more of a light on the relationship between Jinx (Ella Purnell) and Ekko (Reed Shannon). Beyond that, the central trio of Jinx, Vi (Hailee Steinfeld), and Caitlyn (Katie Leung) will serve as the focal point of the new season. Other details—such as what other characters and regions may pop up, and how long the series will go on—will surely be revealed over the course of the next year.
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