Arcane Season 2 is the follow-up to the gorgeous Netflix animated series based on League of Legends lore. It’s been more than a year since Season 1 was launched. And since then the series has swept numerous awards and swelled the numbers of the already substantial LoL fanbase. In the series, we followed the stories of Vi and Jinx, the creation of Piltover, Zaun and more.

Now that 2023 has arrived it looks like Arcane Season 2 will be out sometime this year. But as of yet there isn’t a concrete date. In this article, we’ll go through what we learned in Season 1 and see where the story will go in Arcane Season 2.

In case you haven’t finished the series watch out for spoilers below!

 

Characters That Won’t Be Returning

At the end of Season 1, Jinx fires a badass arcane crystal rocket into Piltover’s council chamber. Present in the chamber was Jayce, Mel, Viktor, Cassandra, Hoskel, Bolbok, Shoola, and Salo. And based on the power of the arcane, it’s unlikely that some, if any except for Jayce would make it out alive to Arcane Season 2.

User u/Vernietzche on Reddit, believes that at the very least it is confirmed that Cassandra (and maybe Mel?) are dead. That image glimpsed in Bridging the Rift episode 3 – of Caitlyn and her Dad mourning, might have revealed Cassandra dies. 

If Mel and Cassandra die in the explosion, it would give Jayce and Caitlyn a major incentive to pursue Jinx moving forward in Arcane Season 2. Subsequently, we could see Jayce walk back on his promise to give Zaun its independence from Piltover, especially now that Jinx – a Zaun citizen – carried out the terrorist attack.

 

Characters Returning To Arcane Season 2

Arcane Season 2 characters confirmed:

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

But in this earlier teaser, Arcane fans are convinced they can hear the mechanical heartbeat of League of Legends‘ champion Warwick. Warwick was originally a retired Zauntie gangster who was captured and experimented on by Singed. He pumped him full of chemicals and spliced him with monster DNA, eventually turning him into a machine-monster hybrid. Drawn to blood now he preys upon the criminals of Zaun.

Hot theory: Vander could be Warwick.

 

Piltover vs Zaun

The main story in Arcane Season 2 is likely going to focus on the war brewing between Piltover and Zaun. Tensions were already simmering between the two nations in season 1, so we wouldn’t be surprised if a full-blown conflict begins as a result of Jinx’s attack.

During a Reddit AMA, co-creator Christian Linke summed up season 2’s story with one word – war. So expect lots of fighting to occur both amongst each other and within themselves.

I expect in Season 2 that Caitlyn will take Marcus’ place as the Sheriff of Piltover, which is her official title in League of Legends.

 

CaitVi

Heroes from two worlds, and caught in a war, Caitlyn was born and raised in a wealthy and influential family in Piltover. While Violet or Vi is a brawler from the rough undercity. Throughout Season 1 we’ve seen their relationship develop and even in the League of Legends game, there are hints of their relationship. In Arcane Season 2 this relationship will develop more and showrunner Alex Yee said shippers “will be happy”.

“We have always wanted to tell an organic story about Caitlyn and Vi that feels like it’s really true to how we see them, and how they’ve been seen,” Yee says. “The way in which we wanted to roll that story out has always been sort of determined. What you will see in Arcane Season 2 will be part of the big picture that we’ve had all along.”

Arcane Season 2 won’t make it easy for Caitlyn and Vi to be together. If Cait’s mother really does die, it’s likely that she’ll be going after Jinx. Which will put Vi in a difficult position. Especially if she ends up leading Zaun now that Silco has been killed and Jinx is well…. Jinx.

 

Viktor

For all you League of Legends fans, you’ll know that Viktor’s arc is not nearly complete without his various augmentations. But Season 1 was a good start to where he’s going. By the end, he’s so completely obsessed with his Hextech research that he inadvertently murdered his childhood friend Sky.

In Arcane Season 2 expect his story to only get darker when he eventually will use Hextech to cybernetically enhance his body.

 

Will Arcane Season 2 Be The Last?

Arcane Season 2 MIGHT be the end of this series. In Bridging the Rift episode 5, Riot Games co-founder Brandon Beck confirmed the show’s creative team would look to explore more of Runeterra’s regions and introduce new League of Legends heroes. Many fans took this to mean Vi and Jinx’s story, in particular, will end when the curtain falls on the show’s second season.

This could be that a new series could launch based on new areas of Runeterra. The world where League of Legends takes place. Much like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Or it could be a completely different story shown but still under the same name. So Arcane Season 3 taking place somewhere else with new chracters.

While we wait for more news from Riot Games and Netflix, here’s all the lore from each character in Arcane in case you missed it!