Arcane, Riot’s first animated series inspired by League of Legends, is being delayed until next year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced today.
Riot vice president of creative development and IP Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street addressed the difficulties of working from home amid the pandemic. While the series set in Runeterra was slated for a 2020 release, it’s being postponed until 2021.
“Everyone here at Riot is bummed,” Ghostcrawler said. “We were really looking forward to bringing you the show this year, but we need to balance our excitement for the story with the safety and well-being of our teams and partners.”
Ghostcrawler went on to discuss how hard it is to “get the creative energy flowing” when you can’t see your coworkers in real life. And there are plenty of technical difficulties that stand in the way when producing something of this magnitude from home.
The Arcane announcement trailer from October 2019 gave a sneak preview of the series about the “origins of two iconic League champions—and the power that will tear them apart.” Many speculate that it will follow Vi and Jinx through Zaun.
At time of writing, Riot hasn’t given an exact date for when Arcane will be released.
