Music has always been a big part of Riot Games and League of Legends, so it’s not all that surprising that the studio is releasing an all-new music video for its upcoming show, Arcane. The Netflix series (which premieres on November 6), is a kind of origin story for iconic League of Legends’ champions like Vi and Jinx as they’re torn apart by the wider conflict erupting between the twin cities of Piltover and Zaun—one a scientific utopia, and the other a biohazard wasteland. Yesterday Riot unveiled the title track for Arcane, called Enemy by Imagine Dragons, with its own bespoke music video. It’s awesome.
I’m not a huge Imagine Dragons fan, but I dig the antagonistic vibe of the music and the surprise rap interlude performed by JID. Rather than cutting up clips from the show and splicing them with footage of Imagine Dragons in real life, the band is fully animated as if they are characters in Arcane. It’s pretty hard to overstate how gorgeous this animation is, too. I’ve been saying that since Arcane was first announced in 2019, but it looks so dang pretty here. Riot’s animated trailers have set a high benchmark for years, but with Arcane it feels like the studio is settling into a distinct, painterly aesthetic that’s unlike anything I’ve seen from other animation studios.
Rather than focusing on Imagine Dragons—like you’d normally expect in a music video—the band takes a backseat to Vi and Jinx, sister-orphans growing up on the mean streets of Zaun. Scenes of Jinx and her friends running from police or practicing street fighting play up the contrast between Jinx as a kid and the unhinged terrorist she becomes—which mirrors the overarching story of Arcane.
If you haven’t been following Arcane, you should check out the trailer. Netflix has been on a good winning streak with most of its serialized adaptations of games, and combined with Riot’s knack for killer music and stylistic animation, I think Arcane looks amazing.
