Who is Warwick in LoL? New Arcane Season 2 character explained
Riot GamesThough it hasn’t yet been officially confirmed by Riot Games, the collection of teaser trailers make it near impossible for Warwick not to be in the show. Here’s everything we know about his in-game form and how it connects to the characters within the Arcane universe.
One of Arcane‘s greatest strengths is its ability to give payoffs to longtime players invested in the lore while remaining a fun watch for those who have no knowledge about the game.
Watching the first season of Arcane as a League of Legends fan was an entirely different experience in comparison to those going in blind, and as a result, it’s a bit easier for longtime fans of the series to predict where it’s going.
Warwick was speculated to be a character in Arcane even as Season 1 wrapped, and teaser trailers have pretty much confirmed that he’ll be a key player in Arcane Season 2. Here’s what you need to know about Warwick if you’re not familiar with the League of Legends lore.
Fair warning that this article contains spoilers for not only Season 1 of Arcane, but potentially Season 2. If you want to go in blind, be wary.
What is Warwick’s role in LoL’s lore & in Arcane?
Although the process of making Arcane a completely canon part of the LoL universe in relation to the game it’s based on is still ongoing, it’s a goal for the devs to create one complete, all-encompassing universe.
To understand why that’s important, it must first be established that Singed is one evil dude. While he may not be the most powerful character in the lore (that title probably goes to a celestial being like Aurelion Sol or Bard), he’s incredibly important and has a lot of influence despite his gameplay being largely based around him crop dusting his enemies with poison fart clouds. No, really.
With Riot announcing that an Arcane character crucial to Season 2 will be getting a rework and visual update, Singed is the most likely candidate. He’s also an essential part of Warwick’s story, something that clearly isn’t a secret for those who have seen the new trailer.
Details on Warwick’s creation within the League of Legends universe can be found in Singed’s “Engineering the Nightmare” story, one that details the engineering of Warwick and provides sketches of the device on his back both in-game and in Arcane Season 2’s trailer.
Here’s an excerpt from that story:
“Procured a cutthroat hiding among the populace and feigning civility. Only a disciplined eye could recognize the beast within, yearning for release. How could I refuse? For what is my work if not an attempt to reveal life’s hidden truths through science?
“It required two doses to subdue him. Impressively resilient. A necessary quality to survive the grand catalyst of pain and provoke the transmutation. The metamorphosis will reshape the man into a chimeric predator, and all of Zaun will be its hunting grounds.”
This cutthroat is incredibly likely to be Vander. Though this story was written far before Arcane was released, the show’s context leads to Warwick being Vander with how Season 1 left his fate on a bit of a cliffhanger.
As Riot undergoes the monumental task of making everything canon, there are bound to be a few inconsistencies here and there. However, there’s still a great bit we can glean from Warwick’s origin story, including Singed purposely severing his limbs and fashioning him claws.
Another part of the story describes one of Singed’s test subjects breaking free of its restraints and violently slashing his face, lining up with his marred and bandaged appearance both in-game and in the Arcane teaser trailer.
In the end, Warwick ultimately escapes the lab and runs off on his own, leading into his in-universe story, “If They Run”. Warwick is themed around being a bloodthirsty killer in-game, but the story adds a new dimension closer to Vander’s identity that depicts him slowly losing his humanity and trying to hold onto it:
Riot Games“Where is the girl? I’ve lost track in the mayhem. Surrounded. Blades stabbing like clumsy teeth. Claws a metal blur. Jaws clamp down, and bones crack along with armor. I taste blood. And still there’s more.
“I see her now. One of the Nails hovers above the girl, his shiv raised. I can stop him. But the machine pumps again, and my limbs surge with power. The red haze fills my mind. Everything is a blur. Everything is forgotten. Everything is blood.
“I don’t know if I saved the girl. I don’t know if I killed her. I’m still biting through flesh when the surviving Nails flee into the darkness. I turn, following them into the night. I have no choice.
“They are the monsters I hunt. And I am one of them.”
The events of Arcane’s first season have, for many, recontextualized Warwick’s stories with the knowledge that Vander is likely who Warwick used to be, leading to many coming back to Warwick’s initial rework reveal from all the way back in 2017 to admire the way in which his character has been adapted to the Arcane universe.
This makes it likely that Vander’s struggle with holding onto his own humanity as Warwick will be a key plot point in Arcane Season 2.
And, again, while Riot have yet to officially confirm Warwick for Season 2, all of these in-universe stories and the visual similarities between the two characters make it all but set in stone that we’ll be seeing Warwick when Arcane Season 2 airs in November 2024.
