League of Legends' new season trailer is basically an epilogue to Arcane with 6 new Fortiche champion redesigns in it—so if it's not a preview of the upcoming Noxus show, I'll eat my hat

GamesMOBALeague of LegendsLeague of Legends' new season trailer is basically an epilogue to Arcane with 6 new Fortiche champion redesigns in it—so if it’s not a preview of the upcoming Noxus show, I’ll eat my hatWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Riot Games / Fortiche)

Mel from Arcane stares, contemplatively, in a new trailer for Season 1 of League of Legends 2025.

League of Legends is getting its first in-game season of 2025 soon and, as is Riot’s tradition, there’s a big and flashy new trailer with some gorgeous animation to accompany it. Namely, it has collaborated once again with Fortiche, the studioRiot threw $250 million atto make Arcane, a bet which I’m pretty happy to say has paid off.

The venture’s been so successful, in fact, thatRiot’s promised new shows featuring Demacia, Noxus, and Ionia. We know that Fortiche is involved, making this season’s Noxus-themed trailerveryinteresting because, well, just look at the thing.

Welcome to Noxus - Bite Marks (ft. TEYA) | 2025 Season 1 Cinematic - League of Legends - YouTubeWatch On

Welcome to Noxus - Bite Marks (ft. TEYA) | 2025 Season 1 Cinematic - League of Legends - YouTube

It’s all looking too fleshed out to be a throwaway. New designs take a while to formulate—meaning smaller-scale animation projects like trailers and the like will try to keep the scope of what they actually show relatively limited. Unless Fortiche is incapable of keeping its cool (which is very possible) the sheer budget poured into this trailer’s multiple locations has me suspicious we basically just got a trailer for a new show disguised as a game advertisement.

The timeline makes sense, too. Arcane showrunner Christian Linke also stated back in November 2024 that the next show’s been in development for about a year, which is ample time to have a set of character designs and sets finalised for a trailer. I’d be shocked if the designs we’re seeing here are going to change much, going forward.

Besides, not only is Mel just there, showing us her character’s trajectory after the events ofArcane Season 2, LeBlanc outright states that “Piltover was a lesson” before hinting at some Black Rose cabal mischief. Folks, if I’m not looking at a teaser for Fortiche’s next League spinoff, then I’m not sure what I’m looking at, at all.

Update:Riot has clarified that the new looks for Elise and Katarina in this cinematic are the Masque of the Black Rose Elise and Prestige Masque of the Black Rose Katarina skins. Riot also announced in today’sdev updatethat LeBlanc is getting a visual update, which would explain the new look. So, impressive trailer, absolutely, but a preview of the upcoming Noxus show? It looks like it might be hat-eatin' time.

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