Christian Linke & Alex Yee Interview: Arcane League of Legends

Arcane co-creators and executive producers Christian Linke and Alex Yee talk translating the game to screen and expanding League of Legends’ lore.

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The world of League of Legends is expanding with the Netflix animated series Arcane. Set prior to the events of Riot Games’ multiplayer online battle arena, the show retells the origin stories of some of the game’s more memorable champions Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, Jayce, and Viktor, and how the tension between Piltover and Zaun will shape them into the warriors fans know and love.

Ahead of the show’s arrival on Netflix, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with Arcane co-creators and executive producers Christian Linke and Alex Yee to discuss bringing League of Legends to life on screen, expanding the lore of their game, and more.

Screen Rant: Arcane and the world of League of Legends is such a vast one at this point. What was it like exploring all of the source material to really bring the series to life?

Christian Linke: Well, we’ve been with the game and the IP for so long, it was just kind of unpacking I think a lot of what happened between the time when the characters came out and also how they became these icons for our players in the League community. So I think a lot of it was really trying to listen to our audience and how they perceived the characters.

I remember when we put out, for example, Viktor [Harry Lloyd] and certain stories were released how there was kind of an outcry we just made him too much of a tropey villain or something like that. What kind of nuance there is, among the perception of our audience. So I think a lot of it was just really trying to get a good idea of what is it that makes these characters special and you the eyes of our audience and trying to respect that, and then finding what we have to say.

Because I think the worst thing we can do is just a bunch of fan service, so then working together to kind of go take that and say, “Okay, what is actually something that we have to say with this story that we’re gonna craft?”

Alex Yee: I mean in a lot of ways, it’s a very familiar position. We spent such a long time working on the world, for me, there are just so many different people who I worked with and spent a lot of time with and for as much as you see in the game or on the websites, in the bios and the color stories, there are so many more stories that we didn’t have the opportunities, or the right medium to tell.

So in a lot of ways, it was an embarrassment of riches, and then in some ways, it was about, “Gosh, how do we cut it down to just be the story that we want to tell right here right now? But of course, I think figuring out how to translate the game to the screen definitely took a lot of learning, a lot of adapting, but I think we feel pretty good about where it landed.

I think one thing that we did that I hope sort of it brings the show to a place where both fans of the IP and newcomers can both appreciate it is we always tried to make the team comprised of both longtime League players and lead developers, and then also people who are kind of coming in fresh out of Hollywood or just outside in general. I think that that really helped give us both sides of the perspective of different audiences that might be coming to watch.

What would you say were some of the biggest creative challenges for you both finding that right tone and finding that right balance of stuff for longtime players and newcomers?

Christian Linke: In a game like League of Legends, you have to stay on the surface level with our characters, because there’s 150 characters in League of Legends, so in order for you to get an idea of who a character really is, you have like five, ten voiceover lines that are going to really stick with you. But you need to be very clear about who they are, and when you craft something like Arcane, you do have to go much deeper.

If you think about sticking with a character for six hours, you’re just gonna keep watching them, you start asking a lot of different questions around what’s their daily life, where do they sleep, what do they eat, like how do they kind of go about their day? That was something we never really explored, so I think it was just adding these layers that actually are necessary to even really entertain real drama and real human elements and moments that in League you don’t really experience with these characters.

But I think apart from that, we talk about this sometimes, we did the first animation tests, we had seen and worked with these characters for so long that we had never seen them even speak because, in our game, you don’t get that close to the characters. So the casting process was very scary because so much of our players’ expectation also comes from the voice of the characters and how they express themselves, so we just had to take liberties, we had to kind of find the version that in our minds respects who the characters are, but also still take it further.

Since the voices were so important, who would you say was the toughest one, and who would you say was the easiest one to find in the casting process?

Alex Yee: Count down from three and we would both say Jinx was the scariest, I think. We knew from the very beginning would be one of the toughest roles to really nail, you know, she’s so big and everything is externalized in the game. But of course, we knew we wanted in the show to sort of get to peer beneath that layer and find kind of the subtlety and nuance for the character. I think Ella [Purnell] did a fantastic job of nailing that.

I suppose we might also count down from three to the easiest cast, although it was simultaneously easy and nerve wracking, which I think would be Silco. Fortunately, Silco was a new character so he doesn’t come quite as loaded with expectations as any of the champions would, but I distinctly remember, I think it was like four or five in the morning, and I was going through just this long list of auditions – well, it was a late night for me, early morning, for others, I suppose [chuckles] – and I was just going through and I just had this sort of sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach as I was listening to the auditions, where I was, like, “Oh, God, this is going to be impossible.”

Then Jason Spisak’s voice was like the clouds parting because, from the first second of the first audition, he just was Silco. Working with him, it was always just which of the options that you’ve given us should we take. Those were probably either end, but it’s hard to single out any member of the cast because everyone does a really great job, everyone commits so hard to their role and to nailing both what we’re looking for in the show, but also something that will live up to the expectations of the fans. So I think we’re so fortunate to have found the people that we found.

What was it like then working with Netflix and coming to realize that they were going to be the perfect home to bring this series to life for you both?

Christian Linke: We knew from our audience that they were already on Netflix and we have a very global game. I think a lot of us, especially when you grew up in a place like Europe, you’re kind of used to the experience of like, “Oh, there’s my favorite show or movie or game coming out in the US first, and maybe someday, I’ll get it too.”

I think that is something that the world has luckily shifted away from, but for us, it’s still something very real, that even a slight delay has our audience up in arms, and rightfully so. So the reason for Netflix was there was the capability to release this really at the same time, a quality bar that’s really high, the localization was very, very important to us, but – maybe also to be self-centered here for a second – because I grew up with overdubs, I grew up in Germany watching my favorite shows and movies in German, you can always tell if someone spent the time and the effort to make something truly great with a dub.

So that was really, really important to us, and working with Netflix was really helpful because we could just really make sure. I watched the German, the French, the Spanish, the Mandarin versions, granted, in many cases, I had no idea what I’m listening to, but at least making sure that the lipsync is good, that we’ve kind of put in the hours to make sure this is good, that was really important and I think was just a really strong partner to make sure that the experience of how this goes out is right for our audience.

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