Arcane co-creator says he's been working on some top fan-picks for new stories "for months, in some cases years" - and hints that a pirate series could be on the horizon
So long Piltover, I'm heading to Bilgewater
Jinx, Vi, and Caitlyn's story may be over, and although Arcane is ending after two seasons, the creators still have plans to tell more tales in the League of Legends universe.
In a recent interview with popular Riot fan-account Spideraxe, Arcane showrunner Christian Linke says, "The next stories, I mean I'm literally flying to Paris early next year to continue the work with Fortiche in-depth and we're working on the next stories, we're exploring a bunch of them."
Linke goes on to explain that where he's seen fan discussion about what stories Riot should look into telling next, the top comments point to regions and stories that Riot "already [has] been focusing on [...] for months, in some cases years. I'm very confident that we're looking in the right direction, and looking at the right stories and the right characters."
We already knew that other stories were being considered and even already in development, but it's news that Linke is going to Paris so soon to get back to it all. There's a new League of Legends show that's already been in development for a year, and we originally thought there could be several coming due to Linke saying "Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia are getting shows and are [the] next steps into this cinematic universe."
Last clip of the day, Riot Praeco shared what he is looking forward to next, which is of course the next stories. In addition to Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia, they're also investing heavily into Bilgewater. pic.twitter.com/NWawFWoUqXNovember 30, 2024
Riot co-founder Marc Merrill stepped in to address the remark. "To clarify, he didn’t say 3 separate shows – said exploring 3 regions," he tweets. "We are exploring a bunch of different shows (and games)."
He adds, "We're investing heavily into Noxus, into Ionia, Demacia , Bilgewater." This further confirms our theory that the big bad of these TV shows is actually Grand General of Noxus, Swain, but it's also a new hint - while those first three regions have been mentioned several times, I've not previously heard Linke mention Bilgewater, a pirate haven that's already been explored in detail in video game spin-off The Ruined King.
If you've finished the show and want to read more of our thoughts, check out our Arcane season 2 review.
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I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.
- Ali JonesNews Editor