The following article contains spoilers for Arcane on Netflix. You can check out both seasons with a Netflix subscription.
By the time Arcane premiered its long-awaited second season in November 2024, fans already knew they'd be saying goodbye to sisters Vi and Powder (a.k.a. Jinx). The two siblings have emerged as highlights of the vast League of Legends universe. While the duo have definitely become franchise favorites, series co-creator Christian Linke explained that they weren't the first picks to be the show's central characters. In fact, when the show first went into development, Jinx and Vi weren't even all that loved by fans.
I had the chance to speak with Linke during a press junket for Arcane, which is currently in the midst of its awards campaign. Something I’d always wondered was how the team chose Vi and Jinx to be the focal points of the acclaimed show — and what that might mean for other characters going forward. Linke was honest in saying that he and co-creator Alex Yee could've gone down the safe route. However, the two producers chose to take a chance, as Linke explained:
You can look at all kinds of data, like which characters are popular and, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think it just has to boil down to who of our internal team really…has a certain passion or a…vision for a character…you do need to find those pockets. I mean, Piltover and Zaun were like the lowest-scoring regions in our IP before Arcane existed. There was no interest for them among our audience….but for Alex [Yee] and I, Vi and Jinx were just cool. And we were just like, ‘What happened? This one very simple question, what happened between them as sisters, that started it all. We were just like, ‘We wanna know what that is.'
Considering how great the show ultimately turned out, it's now wild to think that Vi and Jinx wouldn't have been highly thought of amongst fans. I would think that, in some cases, it may be tempting for creatives to cave to pressure from fans and popularity-related data. However, it’s because Christian Linke and Alex Yee stuck to their guns that the series fans have ultimately come to know and love began to fall into place.
Everything ultimately worked out, as Arcane was hugely successful and became one of the best shows to binge on Netflix. It was ultimately the creators' choice to end the series after two seasons because they felt the “story” surrounding its main characters had reached its natural conclusion. And, while there are plenty of other shows like Arcane out there to enjoy, it doesn't have any equal. I'm personally still not over the emotional series finale and am still wondering whether one particular character made it out alive.
Of course, avid viewers will still see LoL characters moving forward, as previously reported. Christian Linke already has some ideas for the next series, whether it’s connected or not. And, right now, he and his team, as creatives, are doing precisely what they did with Vi and Jinx – seeing what stories they want to tell from which characters, regardless of popularity:
I think a lot of what we're doing right now is asking those questions, you know, like, ‘What do you really want to work on? What do you really need to exist?’ And thinking about who we are as creatives, ‘which story could we also tell?’
I’m the kind of person who is able to enjoy Arcane without playing the games but, now, Christian Linke's comments make me wonder what characters I might be missing out on as well as the potential stories could be told. I doubt there is going to be any new LoL series anytime soon, and certainly not on the 2025 TV schedule. Still, Linke’s comments give me hope for the next yarn he and his collaborators spin – and you can bet I'l be sitting on my couch, ready to enjoy and dive back into this epic fantasy universe.
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