Arcane showrunner reveals which three League of Legends regions Riot Games will explore next

Arcane has come to an end with the release of its second season, but League of Legends developer Riot Games is far from done with the animations based on the hugely popular MOBA.

In an interview with League content creator Necrit, Riot creative director and Arcane creator and showrunner Christian Linke revealed the three Runeterra regions being explored as locations for future shows: Noxus, Ionia and Demacia.

Arcane is set in Piltover and Zaun, but Season 2 teases Noxus, the home of Ambessa Medarda and her daughter Mel, as a possible future setting. Riot describes this region as a “brutal, expansive empire” home to champions like Darius and Draven.

Ionia, an island continent “of natural beauty and magic,” is home to characters such as Yasuo, Ahri, and Zed. They remained largely neutral until Noxus invaded their lands.

Finally, Demacia is Runeterra’s “proud, righteous kingdom with a prestigious military history.” Garen, Lux and Lucia come from there.

In the interview, Linke revealed that Reddit threads where players voted on where they think Arcane Successors should appear next were spot on.

“I’ll give you a little something,” he said. “I’ll tell you this: we’re investing quite a bit in Noxus, Ionia and Demacia. We actually start with character stories. But I’m very confident that we’re investing in the right stories because those were simply the responses we saw in these threads.

“We have a lot of data. We know which characters our audience likes and play them often. It takes some effort to understand the difference between people who pick champions because they win and people who pick champions because they like them. But we pay attention to that. So we’re not just assuming who’s popular because they win, but where is resonance and how do you define resonance?

“But I’m very confident that we’re looking at the right regions where there’s a lot of fan base and a lot of interest, and I guess that’s where I’ll leave it.”

Before this teaser, Linke confirmed that “we (Riot) are currently developing the follow-up project.”

“We’re exploring a number of directions,” he said. “When you work on something for nine years, it’s normal and expected to have ideas for other stories.

“We look at every region. Now we have the opportunity to focus on creating a slate to tell many more stories. We’re not done yet. This is a really exciting time for us right now because we can really focus on what’s next.”

The question, of course, is when fans might see Riot’s Arcane successor. Given the enormous costs involved in carefully crafting Arcane, it may take some time. But hopefully it comes sooner than the three years it took for Arcane Season 2 to come out after Season 1.

Last week, Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill called ongoing arguments over Arcane’s huge budget “silly.” While Arcane was a massive hit for Netflix and Riot Games – an unabashed critical darling that received high praise from League of Legends fans and elsewhere – it didn’t come cheap. earlier this month diversity reported that Arcane’s two seasons, totaling 18 episodes, cost a staggering $250 million to produce and market.

This number undoubtedly makes Arcane by far the most expensive animated series of all time, but it is also heavily debated, with many pointing out that Arcane compares favorably to Pixar’s animated films in terms of cost per minute.

Photo credit: Riot Games.

Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].