A new League of Legends cinematic from Arcane animation studio Fortiche sets up the story to come in the game’s first season of 2025, and serves in many ways as a continuation of some of the plot threads from the critically acclaimed Netflix show.
League of Legends’ first season of 2025 is set to begin January 9 and will be all about Noxus, one of the major political empires in the world of Runeterra and one that became a bigger part of Arcane season 2’s story. The cinematic shows several different stories unfolding, as familiar League of Legends characters like Katarina looks to assassinate a target and is stopped by Elise, Noxus general Darius confronts the ice troll Trundle, and Arcane’s Mel–who is not yet a playable champion in Riot’s MOBA–looks to make her return to Noxus. Mel is currently playable in Teamfight Tactics, and is heavily rumored to be added to League of Legends proper as part of 2025 Season 1, Welcome to Noxus.
As is the case with Arcane, Fortiche brings the world of League of Legends to life in stunning fashion, with an absurd attention to detail and a slightly stylized look that gives each character more life and personality than they’ve ever had before.
It’s at the end of the cinematic that Arcane fans get some of the biggest connections to Fortiche’s show. Vladimir and LeBlanc, members of the Black Rose shadow organization that played a large role in Arcane season 2’s story, discuss “taking advantage of the opportunity that has washed up our shores” presumably in regards to Mel. LeBlanc even directly references the events of Arcane when she says “Piltover was a lesson.” She then tells Vladimir that the Black Rose’s next move “must be bolder, not safer.”
Riot is putting a big emphasis on story for its seasons in 2025, with each of the year’s three seasons focusing on a different region of the world of Runeterra. Each season will have its own theme and storylines that will serve as an “anchor” for new content added over the course of the year, including new champions, modes, skins, and gameplay changes. Some of those gameplay changes in Welcome to Noxus include a Noxus version of the game’s tried-and-true Summoner’s Rift. The map will include a new boss monster, respawning towers, and a new Feats of Strength system that will buff the boots of the team that manages to secure two out of three Feats like scoring first blood or destroying the first tower of the game.
As for the future of Arcane, the show’s creators said the plan was for it to always last two seasons and that there won’t be a Season 3. However, Arcane co-creator Christian Linke also said spin-off shows revolving around Arcane characters and regions like Noxus, Demacia, and Ionia, are all in the works. Riot co-founder Marc Merrill later clarified that Linke meant the three regions would each be “explored” but wouldn’t necessarily have their own show, though he also said Riot was, in fact, “exploring a bunch of different shows (and games).”
