The smash animated show Arcane caught the world off guard. The spin-off series, based on the well-known Riot PC game League of Legends, could have the potential to be a similar failure as the film Warcraft (based on the equally well-known video game World of Warcraft).

But unlike Warcraft and the show’s Rotten Tomatoes rating of 28 percent, Arcane has soared. It has an 85% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a staggering 9 Annie nominations for 2022 and has been a regular in the top spot on Netflix’s top-rated English-language series, whether animated or not.

The success of the Riot team can be attributed to young-looking authors Christian Linke and Alex Yee (both members of the Riot creative team) and their love for the characters and their years of working behind the scenes of the game helped bring the tales of the sisters, and League champions Vi and Jinx to life. They also hired Studio Fortiche’s services.

Studio Fortiche, which is known for being founded and run by artists who refuse to allow pressure to stop them from creating professional work. Their style of oil painting pushed into the realm of 2D and 3-D animation, and resulted in the moving-art piece which is the Arcane. Add a sassy theme tune by Imagine Dragons and you have an extremely popular series in 2021. It’s no surprise that when Season 1 ended, Riot announced that there would be a Season 2. The question is… what should we expect from Season 2? Ahead, beware of spoilers.

Arcane season 2 release date: What do we know?

There’s no official release date to announce for Arcane season 2 at this time. We do know that it’s on the way, however, as the announcement of the return of the show after the season 1 finale:

The teaser below does not reveal anything aside from the fact Season 2 of the show is currently in production, and that three of the characters from season 1 will return (more on this in the future). We’re happy that Arcane will get another season. Arcane certainly deserves a second chance.

When will it be returning to Netflix? At the moment, it’s difficult to answer since we don’t have any idea of how season 2 is progressing. However, don’t expect that it’ll be out until 2022, as per Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent who posted on Twitter that the next installment in the series will not be in the pipeline until next year.

So, yes, we’re making #arcane season 2. The good news: you won’t have to wait for 6 years (the time it took us to make season 1). The bad news: it’s not coming in 2022.

We can expect Arcane season two to be released sometime in 2023. In light of the fact that Fortiche Productions recently posted a job advertisement for fresh FX3D artists for season 2 (thanks for the heads-up, Reddit(opens in new tab)! ) the development for season 2 is in the beginning stages, too.

Don’t count on Riot Games’ recent acquisition of a non-controlling stake in Fortiche(opens in a new tab) to allow things to progress with greater speed. Although the acquisition will allow both companies to work together “during the early ideation and storyboard development of Arcane and has been a key partner throughout the development of the show,” however, they’ll be required to work together to ensure that each and every aspect of the production of Season 2 is the best it could be.

We’re waiting for the next season, however, the show clearly requires lots of attention and care to ensure it’s as good as it currently is, and rushing it would only create a bad follow-up. The second season should arrive in the early part of 2023, but even in the event that it’s not then, we’d be happy to keep waiting until December 31, 2023 to watch the season 2 premiere.

Arcane Season 2 storyline: What’s the plot?

Significant spoilers will be revealed for Arcane Season 1.

If you’ve seen Arcane’s debut season, you’ll notice that certain characters might not return in the next season. It’s because in the season’s finale, Jinx fired an arcane crystal rocket into Piltover’s council chamber. It was filled with many of the important and minor characters in the chamber. The people in the chamber at the time of the explosion were Jayce, Mel, Viktor, Cassandra, Hoskel, Bolbok, Shoola and Salo.

And we can’t count on any of them to make it through. If we were to guess the odds, we’d suggest Mel and Cassandra at most, died or suffered serious injuries. This gives Jayce and Caitlyn the motivation to pursue Jinx in the first place, since Mel as well as Cassandra are Jayce’s spouse and Caitlyn’s mother.

We are assuming the possibility that Arcane season two will be the first to see Jayce take a backseat to his promise to grant Zaun the freedom to be independent from Piltover in particular, given that Jinx (a Zaun citizen) has carried out the terrorist attack against the council of Piltover.

Caitlyn may also be looking for revenge in the event that her mother were injured or killed, which could make her a target for Vi, who Caitlyn has become close to. Vi is Jinx’s sister and, therefore, Vi could end up in a tense situation. She could either help Caitlyn as well as Jayce to find her sister or attempt to save Jinx from herself, that would place her at odds with Caitlyn or Jayce.

This isn’t all that could create a divide in the relationship between Caitlyn and Vi as well. A fan asked on Twitter regarding whether Caitlyn is aware she was with Vi along with her crew that attacked Jayce’s lab in the beginning of season 2. Arcane author Amanda Overton revealed that wasn’t the situation. What if Caitlyn discovers the truth during the second season? It’s a good bet, but we’re betting she’ll be angry should she discover the truth.

Whatever the case, you can count on the ongoing war among Piltover as well as Zaun to dominate the show in Arcane season 2. The tensions were already simmering between the two countries throughout the first season of the show and we shouldn’t be too surprised to see a full-blown war break out due to Jinx’s assault on Piltover’s council.

In terms of other storylines to be dealt with in Arcane season 2, we’re hoping to witness Heimerdinger as well as Ekko continue to collaborate to aid the poor. The former was disqualified from Piltover’s council during episode 7 in season 1. when he ran into an injured Ekko in the street corners of Zaun on episode 8. The two bond over their mutual love of technology. Afterwards, when Heimerdinger assists Ekko to get back to her home, they decide to join forces and work to ease Zaun’s pain.

We’ll also have to determine whether Viktor is able to surrender entirely to Hextech research. Viktor inadvertently killed his childhood close friend Sky because of the Hexcore research and it’s possible that he’ll follow a dark path in the second season. If we’re able to learn anything about LoL history, there’s a good possibility that we’ll see Viktor utilize Hextech to enhance his cybernetic body and transform into an LoL champion that the diehard LoL fans consider Viktor to be.

Arcane Season 2 Cast: Who is returning?

There’s no official confirmation regarding this aspect. However, based on the teaser below we’re certain that three female characters will return for the sequel to Arcane:

• Hailee Steinfeld as Vi
• Ella Purnell as Jinx
• Katie Leung as Caitlyn

The video of the tweet implies Vi, Jinx and Caitlyn will be returning for Arcane season 2. We hear their voices in various places throughout the teaser. Considering the fact that all three of them watched during the dramatic episode of season 1, instead of being inside the theater, we can be sure that they’re safe and will be back for season 2.

Who else could be back? This will depend on who is able to survive the Piltover council chamber attack. As we mentioned earlier we believe that Mel or Cassandra might be among the casualties of Jinx’s strike. Likewise, any other council members could suffer injuries or death also. We’d like Jayce to live, however. He’s got a larger responsibility, according to us and will no doubt be determined to find Jinx before the law for her deeds.

Furthermore, Ekko and Heimerdinger should return in season 2. The two weren’t part of the attack on the council chambers. Therefore, they’ll return and we’ll be able to see how their character arcs develop in the second season of Arcane. Viktor is also expected to return, despite the fact that he was inside the council chamber during Jinx’s attack.

There’s a chance of new characters that are introduced in season 2 too. There were numerous death scenes in the first season of Arcane including Silco, Vander and Marcus to name a few – which means there’s a need to introduce new supporting characters. We don’t know what characters will be featured however, there are plenty of LoL heroes and villains Riot, Netflix and Fortiche Productions could draw from the universe of the game franchise and incorporate into the animated series.

ARCANE SEASON 2 TRAILER

Arcane second season trailer Is there a trailer?

It’s not, and it’ll take some time before we get one. If one does come out and we’re able to update this section.

ARCANE SEASON 2 FUTURE

Arcane Season 2: Does it merit another run?

Yes, clearly. The show is rated 100% freshness rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes among critics, and also an ‘fresh’ 96% rating based on reviews from the audience also.

With its acclaim from critics and its acclaim, Arcane season 2 was an unofficial decision. It could not be the case prior to the launch, but once Netflix was aware of how well it did it was just a matter of time until Netflix renewed the show to air a sequel.

There’s plenty of stories to create, character arcs to complete as well as new characters and champions to unveil. So Arcane is never without ideas from either plot or character growth perspectives. We’re also huge fans of Fortiche’s animations for the series, and we’d love to see more episodes of the TV show.