The new League of Legends movie is a sequel to the wild ending of Arcane
Riot has released a new teaser for the near future League of Legends competitive season and the developer is once again partnering with Fortiche. The new trailer, “Welcome to Noxus,‘ features an assortment of Noxian champions scheming and battling – including Mel, the councilor of Piltover, who journeys to the Immortal Bastion in search of answers.
In some ways, Welcome to Noxus is exactly what you’d expect from a pre-season movie. There are some cool battles between champions, with Katarina and Elise duking it out at a fancy ball in Noxus, while Trundle and Darius fight bare-knuckle in the icy area of the Freljord. But there’s a surprising amount of story development here, and the film ends with the leaders of the Black Rose planning their next steps.
The next season of League of Legendswhich starts on January 9, will bring a Noxus themed season to the map, with the terrain and turrets being adapted to the themes of the militant nation. There’s also a new skin line, the Masque of the Black Rose, which features a handful of champions attending a fancy dance ball hosted by the Black Rose. Welcome to Noxus shows us bits and pieces of this party, which is rudely ruined by Katarina. Katarina is an assassin loyal to Swain, the current leader of Noxus, so it seems like there’s still a lot of conflict between the Noxian power players.
Intriguingly, we see LeBlanc and Vladimir appear at the end of the film. They unfortunately don’t match their in-game appearance, but they are still recognizable as characters. This could be a teaser for a future visual update for these champions. It also seems to confirm that LeBlanc is the mysterious magician who confronted Mel in season 2 of the series Arcane. In fact, this new season, The Masque of the Black Rose and the conversation between LeBlanc and Vladimir seem to be a direct continuation of the end of Arcane season 2. This suggests that Arcane is definitely the most important canon, which is an interesting revelation.
If you want to know more about the Black Rose, League of Legends lore, and how Arcane Tying into all of this, Necrit’s video above is a solid dive into the subject from an experienced curator of the game’s complex canon.
We’ll have to see more of Noxus and how this cinematic battle plays out throughout the first season. There’s a lot of narrative potential surrounding Noxus: Mordekaiser’s ticking time bomb hidden in the Immortal Bastion, Swain’s tryst with a devious demon named Raum, Thresh’s theft of souls from the hapless Noxian bar staff, and the ongoing conflict led by Darius in the Freljord .
The new season of League of Legends releases January 9 at 12pm PST/3pm EST.