League devs plan to make popular Arcane characters into Season 12 champions

Isaac McIntyre
Mel Mardarda from Arcane League of Legends show.

Some of the more popular Arcane characters are already being earmarked to become League of Legends champions, Riot Games developers have confirmed, after the immense success of the company’s debut Netflix series.

Riot have struck gold with their first-ever League of Legends series, Arcane with the animated Netflix show already being lauded as a home run.

Many are comparing the nine-episode run, led by Hailee Steinfeld and ‎Ella Purnell as feuding sisters Vi and Jinx, to some of the greatest animated shows of the last few decades, including Avatar The Last Airbender and Cowboy Bebop, and its explosive popularity has earned it an early Season 2 order.

The immense success has left LoL players asking one question: will we see any of the popular Arcane characters make the move into Riot’s flagship title, especially considering many of the show’s cast did the opposite.

According to Riot developers, the answer is yes. It’s still early days, but Arcane characters will eventually make the jump onto Summoner’s Rift in future updates.

Silco in League of Legends Arcane.
Zaun crime lord Silco emerged from Arcane’s run as a fan favorite.

The question has come up several times since Arcane’s last three episodes debuted on November 19, and was asked again during a Sentinels of Light thread on Reddit this week.

Lead champion producer Ryan “Reav3” Mireles confirmed the LoL design team had already begun discussing “porting” characters. He didn’t touch on specific choices, but this could include Zaun’s crime lord Silco, Mel Medarda, her warring Noxus mother Ambessa, or serum-boosted Deckard.

“With how much Arcane has resonated with so many players and viewers, the Champs team is definitely excited to explore characters from Arcane,” Mireles said, “as long as they actually make sense in our MOBA setting.”

Here’s a full list of potential Arcane champs:

  • Silco
  • Mel Medarda
  • Ambessa Medarda
  • Deckard
  • Mylo
  • Claggor
  • Sheriff Marcus
  • Finn
  • Bolbok

The LoL developer didn’t specify when the Champs design team was targeting these Arcane-themed releases, but simply promised they’d come “in the future.”

Mel from Arcane League of Legends show.
LoL players were already tipping Mel to be the game’s next support champ.

Mireles also confirmed the next two League of Legends champions ⁠— already long-teased by this stage ⁠— won’t have anything to do with the Arcane series or its extensive character cast.

“That’s the reason we moved them out of the end of the year,” he revealed, “is that they’re unrelated. I couldn’t say much when the roadmap came out because it was all still under wraps. We felt it would be weird to release champs that aren’t related to or in Arcane in the middle of Riot x Arcane.”

Dexerto is expecting the next League champion, an “amped” gun-based AD carry from Zaun, to arrive early in Season 12, around the patch 12.2 mark.

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About The Author

Isaac was formerly the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. Isaac began his writing career as a sports journalist at Fairfax Media, before falling in love with all things esports and gaming. Since then he's covered Oceanic and global League of Legends for Upcomer, Hotspawn, and Snowball Esports.