Ella Purnell’s two-season fantasy TV show changed the way showrunners think about video game adaptations, and it’s for the better. Video game adaptations have come a long way in the last 10 years. What were once mocked as terrible, corny movies have since become award-winning prestige TV shows.

The Last of Us, Castlevania, even Twisted Metal, have brought video games to television in a way that even people unfamiliar with the IP can get just as much enjoyment out of the series. Video games have always been ripe stories to adapt, but it’s taken years to figure out the best way to do so.

Arcane, a two-season animated show based on the League of Legends video game series and starring Ella Purnell and Hailee Steinfeld, figured out a unique way to adapt its source material. Arcane tells an original story set in the video game universe, a brilliant plot decision that some other great video game adaptations have taken to heart.

Why Arcane Telling Its Own Story Within The Game’s Lore Helps It Succeed

When it comes to adaptations, it makes sense that a showrunner would attempt to follow the storyline laid out in the original text. I just wrote a post for this site explaining that the success of HBO’s His Dark Materials over 2007’s The Golden Compass can be partially attributed to the show following the book more closely.

This logical reasoning falls apart when it comes to video game adaptations. Video games are a medium that values gameplay first and story second. When it comes down to it, even the best-written video game stories are just ways to get the player from point A to point B, accomplishing as many fun tasks as possible along the way.

What video games do very well is create compelling characters that players would want to play as and build worlds they would want to play in. Arcane made the wise choice to use what League of Legends does well: its characters and its world-building, and do away with what it doesn’t.

League of Legends, particularly when compared to something like The Last of Us, is not a plot-forward video game. Had Arcane attempted to create a show that hews closely to the video game storyline, it would have been a mess. By making up their own story, utilizing the tools of the universe, the showrunners created something special.

Fallout Also Follows The Arcane Playbook

Ella Purnell seems to be the face of these kinds of video game adaptations, considering she stars in both Arcane and Fallout, another video game adaptation that utilizes the world of the Fallout games without relying on specific storylines. Fallout is even more of a plot-forward game than League of Legends.

Fallout consists of several video games, with plots that don’t necessarily interconnect, but still exist within the same timelines, particularly the further back you go into the past. Fallout the show does a careful balancing act, bringing some memorable creations of the game into the show, but still sticking with its own story.

The show is canonical to the games, but is not at all dependent on you knowing anything about them to enjoy the series. Games like League of Legends and Fallout offer incredibly detailed and colorful worlds to explore, and adaptations like Arcane ensure that sense of place remains intact but gives audiences a strong plotline to hang on to.

Release Date

2021 – 2024

Network

Netflix

Showrunner

Christian Linke

Directors

Barth Maunoury, Marietta Ren, Christelle Abgrall

Writers

Amanda Overton, Nick Luddington, Mollie Bickley St. John, Ben St. John, Giovanna Sarquis, Henry G.M. Jones