- Riot Video games has launched a brand new in-game cinematic for its subsequent League of Legends season
- The five-minute video additionally seems to behave as a prologue to Arcane‘s Noxus-set sequel present
- Mel Medarda is seen alongside different iconic Noxus characters, together with Darius and LeBlanc
A brand new in-game League of Legends (LoL) cinematic seems to have teased our first take a look at certainly one of Arcane‘s sequel tasks.
The five-minute-long video, titled ‘Welcome to Noxus’, which was launched yesterday (January 7) is, at first, a totally CGI flick that markets the upcoming arrival of LoL‘s first season of the yr. Nonetheless, whereas the promo video has been created to extend the hype forward of season 1’s debut on January 9, it concurrently acts as an epilogue to Arcane season 2 and/or a prelude to the highly-rated Netflix present’s first follow-up.
Set to Teya’s ‘Chunk Marks’ monitor, the cinematic, which was developed in partnership with Fortiche – the French animation studio that made Arcane alongside Netflix and Riot – is crammed with references to the trio’s first animated LoL adaptation. The obvious of these call-backs is Mel Medarda, the daughter of Noxian warlord Ambessa. As I discussed in my Arcane season 2 act 3 ending defined piece, the sequence’ remaining episode revealed Mel was touring again to her homeland of Noxus to hunt solutions to, nicely, all the things that occurred to her in season 2. That features how she acquired mage powers, why her now-deceased mom left Noxus with the purpose of returning to beat it with Piltover’s Hextech, and what function The Black Rose has within the Medarda household’s previous, current and future.
Talking of The Black Rose, there are quite a few references to the clandestine group all through LoL‘s newest trailer. We get glimpses of LeBlanc, Vladimir, and Elise – three of The Black Rose’s 4 most notorious members – and pictures of Mel preventing off a number of the cabal’s darkish magic-wielding magicians. Oh, and do not overlook LeBlanc’s remark about “Piltover being a lesson” for The Black Rose to be taught from. Clearly, this can be a nod to occasions that transpired in Arcane seasons 1 and a pair of, so there isn’t any denying that the Netflix sequence’ storyline is reshaping, and possibly even retconning points of, the broader LoL universe.
There are many different Noxian characters proven all through the teaser, too. The murderer often known as Katarina is the person who spars with the arachnid-like Elis, whereas the hulking Freljord troll known as Trundle is seen squaring off with, after which being defeated by Darius, who’s probably the most iconic Noxian champions in LoL. The latter duel actually means that Noxus is continuous its international enlargement by attempting to beat the Freljord, which could possibly be a secondary location that is explored in future spin-offs of Arcane, aka one of many greatest Netflix reveals ever made.
Curiously, there isn’t any point out or take a look at Noxus’ Grand Normal Swain, who was teased in Arcane‘s last-ever episode by means of the six-eyed raven. Over on LoL‘s official Reddit web page, some followers have been left baffled by his absence from the teaser, particularly with how integral he’s to this Runeterran area. However, you may make certain that he’ll be a part of season 1 of LoL‘s 2025 calendar.
Ever since Arcane season 2 ended final November, followers have been clamoring for extra info on the tasks that Riot, Netflix, and Fortiche are cooking up. Proper now, there’s little or no we find out about these productions, that are nonetheless within the early phases of growth, however some particulars have been revealed by Arcane‘s co-creator Christian Linke for the reason that present’s run on the world’s greatest streaming service got here to an finish.
Talking solely to TechRadar earlier than season 2’s debut on November 9, 2024, Linke and fellow co-creator Alex Yee claimed it will be a very long time earlier than the subsequent League of Legends adaptation lands on Netflix. In a separate interview with TechRadar that came about after its remaining chapter, Linke additionally denied that three Arcane spin-offs had been within the works, earlier than including that he could not say after they’d be launched or which LoL champions would seem in future tasks. Due to this new LoL cinematic, it appears we could have some solutions regarding the latter.
I coated Arcane season 2 extensively earlier than, throughout, and post-release, so make sure to learn extra exclusives from yours actually in regards to the sequence and its sequels within the part beneath.
