Arcane spoilers follow.
Animated series Arcane launched in November 2021 and immediately became a smash hit for Netflix with its gripping tale (and one hell of a cliffhanger ending).
Since then, naturally fans (and us) have been wanting to know anything and everything about the show’s future, season two, and even beyond.
Thankfully, now we’ve got some answers, and while we know it’s going to be a bit of a wait, we know it’s going to be worth it.
Set in the Riot Games’ League of Legends universe, Arcane tells the origin stories of characters from utopian city Piltover and the repressed undercity Zaun, including sisters Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell).
Steinfeld, of course, has since starred in Marvel’s series Hawkeye over Christmas, joining the MCU as Kate Bishop, a young wannabe superhero Hawkeye takes under his wing. She’s also received high acclaim for Dickinson, where she played the young version of poet Emily Dickinson.
But she was less well known when Arcane creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee hired her to be the voice of Vi during the six years it took to get the first season made
“In many cases, the people we chose to work with were not quite as big at the time as they ended up becoming,” Yee told One Esports.
“It was cool to see that a lot of the talent that we chose to work with over the years popped off in a lot of different formats and projects,” Linke said.
Another find was Ella Purnell – who has recently blown away audiences in Yellowjackets – who voices Jinx. “We all know who she is in the game,” said Yee. “But we really wanted to bring this extra dimension to her to see this subtly and true human behind the big, bright flashy exterior of Jinx, and I think Ella was real fine in that.”
So… what’s to come for the series and who will be making a comeback? Here’s everything we know so far.
Arcane season 2 release date: When will it air?
Netflix confirmed that a second season of Arcane started production in November 2021.
According to Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent, the original series took six years to make, but in a tweet he promised that the wait for a second season shouldn’t be as long:
So yeah, we are working on #arcane season 2.
The good news: you won’t have to wait for 6 years (the time it took us to making season 1)
The bad news: it’s not coming in 2022 😢 https://t.co/IQoPyLnw1J— nicolo (@niiicolo) November 21, 2021
But obviously speeding up a six-year process isn’t going to be easy and, as a result, please don’t expect it until at least 2023 (at the earliest).
Co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee commented: “We’re beyond happy about the positive response to Arcane’s first season and are working hard with the creative wizards at Riot and Fortiche to deliver our second instalment.”
Season one had a unique structure, where three episodes landed at once – you can expect season two to have the same delivery system, whenever it lands.
According to Yee (via Superpixel). “This was an idea that we had early on, in terms of a release schedule for it. We were designing the story with an idea of having triplets. You feel like you get a good chunk every three, and the end of every third episode usually has some big moments.
“I think with shows that are more in the half-hour range, having just one every week doesn’t give you a lot to sink your teeth into. And then if we release it all at once, it’s surprising how fast you can watch it.
“Also, Riot really wanted to make this an event – they wanted to have that capability for fans to get together and to speculate and to have there be quests and missions that are in the games that you could unlock while you’re watching. This schedule gave us the best of both worlds. You don’t have to wait too long to get through everything, and every time we have a drop of episodes, hopefully, there’s enough content for you to feel like ‘we got to sit down together, and we got to have a whole viewing experience’.”
Arcane season 2 cast: Who will be in it?
The following season one stars are definitely returning to voice the second season:
• Hailee Steinfeld as Vi
• Ella Purnell as Jinx (formerly known as Powder)
• Katie Leung as Caitlyn
Meanwhile, a teaser from Arcane’s team has fans wondering if there could be an intriguing new addition to the series.
Ready yourselves, friends. Season 2 of Arcane is now in production.
Where’s a Hexgate when you need one? pic.twitter.com/3aUeWuQ5Uu
— Arcane (@arcaneshow) November 21, 2021
The teaser features no new scenes, just some dialogue, but the important bit is at the very end – Arcane fans are convinced they can hear the mechanical heartbeat of League of Legends’ champion Warwick, a part-werewolf, part-machine who doesn’t remember his life before he was experimented on in scientist Singed’s laboratory.
There’s no news yet as to who would voice Warwick should he be added to season two, but watch this space for updates.
Arcane season 2 plot: What will happen?
The final episode of season one was certainly explosive, and left lots of plot threads to be explored in season two.
Silco has been killed, so Zaun no longer has a leader and it’s not clear who could take over. Potential candidate Jinx is out of control, so it may be Vi who has to step up, especially as she is the adopted daughter of Zaun’s late leader, Vander.
Jinx, meanwhile, caused a big problem at the end of the episode, as she pointed a rocket launcher at the Council building – just as those inside were voting to pass a law to give Zaun independence. Her angry act could cause a war between Piltover and Zaun, and it remains to be seen whether there are any survivors from the blast who can confirm that the vote for independence was indeed passed.
It’s not very likely Jinx will be reunited with her sister Vi any time soon, either. Vi initially wanted to repair her relationship with Jinx, but watching your sibling launch a rocket at a building full of people may be hard to get past.
Reed Shannon has some plot hopes for future seasons (via CBR). “I would love to see Ekko and Mel interact. That would be crazy… There’s one thing about Arcane that I was very interested in, because of the poverty difference, because of the difference between the top city and the Undercity, race isn’t a thing that is discussed between the characters.
“So I would love to see how people that look the same interact. Is there that sort of thing, or is everybody just there? I would also love to see them interact just because Ekko is so smart, and she might be like, ‘Oh, you could be used… We could take you back to Noxus and you could build a big anything.’ That would be pretty interesting.”
It certainly would. And there’s a chance Shannon could see his wishes come true on the big screen.
“We want to tell more stories,” Linke told Superpixel. “There’s going to be more things we want to explore whether or not it’s going to be a TV show or movie. I think similar to Arcane, we didn’t say from the beginning that we want it to be a TV show or something. We just went with ‘Okay, we love these characters. Here’s a story that we’re going to tell.’
“And then over time, we found out we need the time of a TV show to go as deep as we want to – Vi and Jinx, Victor and Jayce, etc. But there could be a story at some point where it’s gonna be a movie format. I think we definitely have plans to tell a lot more stories when I really explore this. I think the answer is yes, there will be.”
Arcane season 2 trailer: When can we see it?
The second season has only just started production, so it will be a while before any new footage is available. Expect to see a trailer late in 2022, hopefully when the release date of season two has been confirmed.
In the meantime, at least we have the trailer for season one.
Arcane season one is available to stream on Netflix.
Source: digitalspy.com