we got an exclusive interview with the
star of netflix's arcane she dishes on
going 150 for the role plus exactly how
much she was inspired by harley quinn
who is it keep watching for that and a
whole lot more
riot games attempted to partner with
established hollywood players when an
animated tv show based on the league of
legends universe was first put forward
however it quickly became clear that if
they wanted arcane to turn out or they
envisioned it they would simply have to
make it themselves riot co-founders
brandon beck and mark merrill care
deeply about league and his community of
players so the last thing they wanted
was their prized ip falling into the
hands of people who didn't understand
the game the duo ultimately decided to
hand the reins to christian link and
alex yee two longtime riot staff members
who live and breathe league of legends
meryl said during a candid interview
with the los angeles times if you don't
fully appreciate the journey our players
have been on with these characters there
are risks that can feel in all sorts of
subtle ways inauthentic we concluded
that no one is going to care to the same
degree as rioters that is a fundamental
part of the equation the learning curve
was steep but the final product proved
that the do-it-yourself approach was the
right one to take meryl said we can add
on the great capabilities that other
creators can have but we cannot
sacrifice the love the attention to
detail and historical knowledge and
perspective that rioters have
riot games got serious about making in
rows in hollywood in late 2020 when the
company named veteran netflix exec
shauna spendley as its new global
president of entertainment mark merrill
told deadline at the time shawna's
proven track record in creative
development product design team building
and marketing expertise will be
essential in helping riot fulfill its
mission it's easy to assume that spend
lee's history with the streaming giant
is why arcane ended up on netflix even
still the decision was more to do with
league of legends having a global
audience than anything else speaking to
scream rant christian link explains why
netflix was the ideal home for the show
he said 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 the
fact that netflix subscribers enjoyed
castlevania so much only made that
decision easier according to the los
angeles times getting the animation
right was crucial but as inventive and
easy on the eyes as arcane is it simply
wouldn't have worked without the right
voice actors show runners christian link
and alex yee sat down for a joint
interview with screamrant they've
revealed that the casting process caused
some major headaches especially when it
came to jinx a massively popular
character in the league of legends
community he admitted jinx was the
scariest we knew from the very beginning
she 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 he wanted in the
show to sort of get to pia beneath that
layer and find kind of the subtlety and
nuance for the character
in the end ella pannell landed the gig
and he couldn't have been happier with
the performance he said i think ella did
a fantastic job of nailing that
[Music]
he went on to reveal that the role of
prosthetic eyed arcane antagonist silko
was also extremely hard to cast he
explained 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 spiezak's voice
was like the clouds parting because from
the first second of the first audition
he just was stilco
ready to rise to the surface
before arcane purnell was best known for
her role in miss peregrine's home for
peculiar children now her enthusiastic
voice performance has been praised by
the creators of arcane but it actually
took ella pernell a little while to get
into the rhythm of jinx she isn't
especially intense and more often than
not totally unhinged the league of
legends champion speaking to luper in an
exclusive interview the actor discussed
how show runners christian link and alex
yee gave her a crash course in league
lore and encouraged her to ramp up the
crazy this was my first ever voiceover
job so
i didn't really know what i was doing
and initially i came in playing her
quite like straight and naturalistic and
normal
and they supposed to be about it and
we collaborated and they showed me some
like videos and pictures of like who she
was and explains the world of league of
legends like further and the vision for
arcane the show runner recognized that
she was giving it 100 in the voiceover
booth but they wanted her to quote go in
at 150 instead you know you guys sure
because my 150 is like you're 250. no
like do it
did it had so much fun pernell was able
to find just the right amount of extreme
percent to pull off such an incredible
character both fans and critics are
enthralled with her voiceover
performance of jinx that's me it's no
secret that jinx shares a number of
traits with harley quinn league of
legends fans have been theorizing about
who would win in a fight for years now
ella pernell actually turned to dc's
demented anti-hero for inspiration
explaining that she thought quinn had
fantastic qualities for a violent female
villain harlequin was definitely a great
like jumping off point for that and i
think what harlequin has that i love is
this just raw chaos it's just
she doesn't care
nobody gets in our way right it's just
like
chaotic violent anarchy energy and we
see that a lot with men and we don't see
that often with women another famous
female character that gives off these
vibes is bellatrix lestrange the
bushy-haired wild-eyed death eater from
the harry potter franchise bernal said
that she has always been a huge fan of
helena bonham carter who brilliantly
brought the character to life in the
harry potter movies burnell added
yeah helen of bonaparte has always been
a huge influence for me so maybe there
was like little vibes of that too right
games co-founder mark merrill has been
open about the fact that he sees pixar
as an inspiration he said that it was
one company that has managed to sustain
creative excellence over a very long
period of time however the last thing he
wants is for riot to become another arm
of disney in fact the creators of arcane
went down a very anti-disney route or
putting the show together seana spendly
told the los angeles times when you're
building great iep and we hope to do
that we want our players to feel like it
was holistically built for them versus
this feeling as different business units
that's a very bad outcome the former
netflix exec went on to explain that her
job as riot's global president of
entertainment isn't to make movies and
tv shows the new focus of the company
arcane is designed to stand on its own
as a contained story while
simultaneously introducing newbies to
the main attraction the game she said
all of this is about games at the center
of culture it's the inverse of what a
disney would do they're putting their
films at the center of culture we really
see that games are the center of culture
and these complement that experience
being longtime members of the riot games
family arcane masterminds christian link
and alex yee are well versed in the vast
world of league of legends there's more
than enough law for a cinematic universe
nevertheless despite the distinctly
anti-hollywood approach the company
adopted while developing the series link
and yee took cues from a number of
existing fantasy franchises speaking to
sci-fi ye revealed which universes they
looked to for inspiration he said you
literally cannot go through one story
meeting with christian without getting
at least one lord of the rings reference
and at least one harry potter reference
he went on to reveal that marvel's
netflix show daredevil was another
inspiration for them the arcane intro
has very distinct daredevil vibes
meanwhile editor lawrence gan who played
his trade on the lego movie 2 told
coming soon that arcane also shares some
similarities with the biggest fantasy tv
show of recent times he said it feels
like you're watching an episode of game
of thrones sometimes just when you think
you've got it figured out surprise now
you're crying
arcane introducers unfamiliar with
league of legends to some beloved
characters from the game but the show
barely scratches the surface when it
comes to league champions there are over
150 playable characters at the time and
show winners christian link and alex yee
knew that it would be a difficult
balancing act he told sci-fi we
definitely wanted to get as many
champions as we could into the show
without feeling like we were sacrificing
the quality of the story for any of the
ones that we really want to focus on it
makes the world feel small when all
these characters just happen to be in
the same town and all friends together
he went on to reveal that they knew from
the beginning that if arcane was to have
any kind of longevity it made sense to
hold back during the first season we
knew we wanted to fill it out and give
it a sense of the champions you know and
then the entire world in between them so
no surprise league of legends fans began
hunting for easter eggs and hints about
which characters might be introduced
down the line from the moment the first
three episodes dropped and all the while
this question lingers before you
have you had enough
all the best fantasy novels games films
and tv shows have something to say about
the real world no matter how outlandish
the setting and characters are arcane is
no different in fact christian link was
directly inspired by the world events
that took place as a show was being
developed link told hardware zone for me
when we started this project there were
a lot of questions that we felt we
needed to address regarding things like
power and social structure there were
many political figures and movements
that left an impression on our lives
during this period and although it's
certainly different for everyone i think
we live in a very defining time
if dangerous ideas didn't excite the
imagination we would never wander astray
one of the main themes of arcane is
clashing belief systems and values
though this wasn't necessarily the case
during the show's infancy over time it
became an essential part of the story a
result of the same thing playing out in
the real world link said as people we've
seen so many situations where it's
really easy for one side to just believe
the other is wrong due to ignorance and
this concept was just something that
grew louder and louder as we continued
working on arcane piltover and zorn are
hitting closer to home than you think it
seems
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