a lot of these experiences where it’s
like, guess what, you’re going to face
plant a bunch of times. It was more
important for us to be really fast
learners rather than having the
master plan from the beginning
because no matter what the master
plan is, it would never survive.”
GET JINXED
Scaling a studio to create the most
expensive animated TV series in
history might’ve been the biggest
challenge Linke and Yee faced, but it
was far from the only one. The two
also had to figure out how to make
Arcane accessible to players who
never played League, and avoid the
ancient curse of videogame tie-ins
being near-universally poorly
received. But one of the biggest
problems was just finding the right
voice talent.
“It took us three years to cast our
Jinx,” Linke says. “When we were
starting to think about Jinx, we
quickly knew that we wanted to find
the right voice actress that could hit
the loud moments that are Jinx from
the game, but also that intimacy that
wewantedfromsomeonewho
definitelywrestledwithherdemons.
I thinkweweregettingcloseto
COVER FEATURE
RIOT TV MUSIC GAMESgiving up when we were looking for
[Ella Purnell], and then we just
stumbled over her and the pearly
gates opened.”
As the years ticked by and Arcane
transformed from hastily scrawled
notes in a Google doc to a proof-of-
concept pilot episode, those
challenges only added up. But Linke
says it was their deep familiarity with
these characters that helped them
stay true to the story and its
characters. Linke recalls when Jinx
first was released in-game and how
players complained that her skin
wasn’t as pale as her concept art, and
how fans had so deeply embraced her
subversive, bombastic aesthetic. “I
think you just take all these
experiences into the process, and
over time it paints a much clearer
picture for what you’re trying to
create,” he says.
The other thing that kept Arcane
moving forward was the
overwhelming passion of everyone
who joined the team to work on it. “It
really felt like it was a snowball,” Yee
says. “One of the greatest fortunes
we’ve had working on this is that it
seemedlikeeveryonewhojoinedat
differentpointsalongthewayhas
seenthepassionthateveryoneelsehad poured in and that’s what
elevated it at every phase.”BREAKING OUT
Looking at the hand-painted,
sweeping vistas of Piltover and the
neon-drenched trenches of Zaun, it’s
easy to see Arcane as a labour of love.
Though I’m keen to see the final
three episodes, the first six are
nothing short of astonishing – both in
the sumptuous character animation
and the surprisingly intricate story.
Knowing that it’s effectively the love
child of two Riot developers who had
never made a TV show in their life
makes me like it even more.
It’s also an incredibly well-written
series that explores familiar themes
of magic and science fiction without
dumbing it down to convenient and
all-too-common MacGuffins like
Marvel’s Infinity Stones. But what’s
most surprising about Arcane is how
much depth it finds in characters
who, years ago, were just mascots;
puppets you controlled alongside
nine other players. “Our goal with
Arcane was not so much to show
how these characters are champions,”
Yeesays.“Weknowwhythey’re
champions.Wewantedtoshowhow
theyarehumans.”THE FIRST SIX
EPISODES ARE
NOTHING SHORT
OF ASTONISHING