Arcane writer explains that there's one thing the League of Legends show could do that The Witcher or The Last of Us' adaptations couldn't - change their source material

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"Not a lot of games are as mobile, and moving, and changeable, as League of Legends is"

Arcane
(Image credit: Netflix)

More video game stories are getting adapted for film and TV than ever before - and Arcane writer Amanda Overton thinks Riot's recent can do what The Last of Us and The Witcher simply can't - leave their own mark on the source material.

When a show is based on a single-player game, there's only so much wiggle room available to it. The characters have their set arcs and there isn't anything new to draw on unless a sequel comes out - perhaps that's why adaptations like HBO's The Last of Us stick so close to their in-game narratives. But Arcane is based on League of Legends, an ever-changing live-service title.

"It's just really rare - not a lot of games are as mobile, and moving, and changeable, as League of Legends is," Overton said in an interview with GamesRadar+. "It's updating all the time, it changes, it's a very nimble, changing game. And so there isn't a lot of opportunity to have an adaptation of a game to then also be able to change the game or adapt the game. The Last of Us can't do that, The Witcher can't do that. Any game adaptation that we've seen recently doesn't have that relationship with League that Arcane does."

One benefit is that Arcane is able to skirt around the lore of League of Legends, picking and choosing what it wants. Sometimes things are a bit inconsistent for League fans, but all the changes serve the show well. 

If you want to read our thoughts on the show, read our complete Arcane season 2 review. Now that it's all over we've really dug into it.

Issy van der Velde
Issy van der Velde
Contributor

I'm Issy, a freelancer who you'll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I've always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you'll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I'm currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.

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