Netflix just dropped the latest trailer forArcaneSeason 2, and I’m not sure I’m ready for it. The first season of this fantasy-steampunk was my favorite watch of 2022, and it looks like the second will be just as beautiful, thrilling, and heartbreaking as its predecessor.
Arcane Season 2 puts Vi and Jinx on a colorful collision course
Clocking in at two minutes and twenty seconds, the trailer doesn’t leave much room for you to breathe.
Arcane Season 2 picks up where the first season’s explosive cliffhanger left off, with the cities of Piltover and Zaun plunging into an all-out civil war. With their respective stakes firmly in the ground and their sisterly bond shattered, Jinx (Ella Purnell) and Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) are all but destined to lead their respective factions into battle. Oh, and the magic that powers both cities’ technology is apparently “waking,” so the world may be on the verge of an arcane apocalypse.
Arcane Season 2 is already a work of art.
Arcane‘s first season gave me many reasons to love it, but I fell hard for its incredible animation. The team atFortiche Productions, helmed by directors Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord, produced one of the most beautifully animated television series ever drawn. Colorful and textured,Arcane‘s art style is objectively gorgeous, but it also contributes to the story, helping to tell the tragic tale of the estranged sisterhood atArcane‘s center.
Based on the trailer clips,ArcaneSeason 2’s animators are dialing everything up to eleven. Colors pop with even greater intensity than in the first season, with Jinx’s iconic powder bombs painting Piltover in rainbow hues during one scene. The all-black Hot Topic-adjacent outfit I saw Vi sporting at one point tells me that darkness will cut deeper this season. In a series revolving around class unrest, a contrast in the color scheme speaks loudly without uttering a word.
ArcaneSeason 2’s animation will also continue the first season’s habit of hiding blink-and-you’ll-miss-it bits of foreshadowing between frames.Fans on Redditalready have caught one particularly grim hint towards the potential fate of Heimerdinger, a character we got to see in action during a sneak preview we got back in July. I’m still combing through the trailer for plot details, and I expect fans will find more in the coming weeks.
We’ve known from the moment its first trailer dropped that Season 2 will beArcane‘s last, and as much as it breaks my heart to see the series go, I’m glad it’s going out with such a bang. When the war between Piltover and Zuan starts on November 2nd, I know exactly where I’ll be.
