WARNING: The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Arcane’s first season, currently streaming on Netflix
Netflix's Arcane explores the beloved mythos of League of Legends. In Arcane, morality is grey, leading the animated television show to uncover plenty of foes and hopeful heroes. But there's one character who is the best the world has to offer, Ekko. The fan-favorite character debuted in Arcane as the young Little Man. By the final stretch of the show's first season, the character has become a genuine hero. Brought to life by Reed Shannon, Ekko's role in the final act of Arcane's first season proves why he's one of the franchises' most popular figures.
During an exclusive interview with CBR, Arcane's Reed Shannon revealed his history with the League of Legends universe. Shannon also teased his dream path for Ekko to take in the upcoming second season of the Netflix/Riot collaboration.
CBR: What was your history with League of Legends ahead of being cast in Arcane? Had you been a player of the original game, or was this a world you had to fully dive into when you joined the series?
Reed Shannon: To be honest, when I was younger, I was always looking for things online... I did have a little period where I was into computer games and stuff like that. I tried to play League of Legends, but it was too hard for me then, so I gave up. But then when I auditioned for the show and I ended up starting to work on it, I downloaded it again, and it still was too hard for me. Hopefully this era of my life, I'll learn to play really, really good. The thing is, it's intimidating -- like you're watching [the League of Legends Champion Series] or something like that, they're moving so fast and they're all locked up. I'm like, "Man, I'm still trying to figure out [how to do] anything."
I definitely researched the stories of the characters and stuff because there is already so much on it. I personalized Ekko and his story. I'm actually, on Monday, I'm going to get a tattoo of that first graffiti thing... I made it personal. And it's so cool because it is such an awesome show. I feel like I'm getting to be a fan of something so epic. It's something that everybody can get into. That's probably one of the coolest things about it. Everybody has a way to relate to it, regardless of if it has anything to do with video games or not.
Ekko holds such a special place in the hearts of the fan base. What do you think is the key to Ekko that makes him such a fan-favorite character?
I think a lot of the characters in the world are very goal-oriented. They really set their sights on one thing -- like how Jinx was after the Hextech thing the whole time. And she would just go absolutely crazy because about that one thing which is valid for her. But for Ekko, he just wants to help people. And he's so awesome. He has such amazing power that could be used any way. He could use it to be Silco and take over Shimmer and rule everything. But instead, he helps people. He helps lost children.
Then, also to that point, [Ekko's] young. He's a kid. You don't expect that kind of sympathy from somebody like that... That's one of the things about Arcane, it's that mystery. Ekko is a shining light in that mystery. He's almost a guiding light because at the beginning he gave them the clues, the hints. Then, in the end, he finally fought Jinx. Which, somebody needed to do at some point. I just think it's like, he does everything that everybody wants to do. He's the hero for himself that everybody wants to be for themself.
Ekko gets to balance this dark, angry side to his personality -- but he's still probably the closest thing Arcane has to a genuinely heroic figure. What's it like to balance this innate chip on his shoulder with those more noble qualities of the character?
I think, honestly, playing roles that are conflicting like that, you really have to humanize it... At least for me with Ekko, his goal was to help people, so there wasn't anything that could stand in the way of that. It's understanding, yes, all of these bad things happen to me, but I don't have to use that as something that tarnishes my energy. I can still go out and help people and be the strong person that I'm supposed to be.
Also, I think understanding the relationship between Little Man and Benzo was important. Benzo was also a really good guy... It's no hard feelings with him. Ekko took that figurehead role in the community and matched that with the grit of the streets and with all the things that Vi taught him that she learned from Vander. He's optimistic. Even in the hardest of times, it's being optimistic that you can figure it out and make it to the end, no matter how hard it's going to be. Every time I did that, it seemed like everybody that was listening in on the recording liked it. It seems like it turned out well.
The show is also, on top of all the strong acting and writing and direction, just so cool to look at. One of the highlights of the entire first season is the fight between Ekko and Jinx in the seventh episode.
I was in Australia when I saw it for the first time, filming this show that I'm going to be on in the spring called The Wilds. I saw it and it blew my mind because we were doing just a little pickup session to pick up the laugh that Ekko does... They added that in the art, and so I was like, "Oh wow, that's so sick. That's amazing." They showed me the video all the way from when Jinx shoots at Vi and Caitlyn. I have the video on my phone. The engineer was like, "You're going to lose your mind. You have no idea what you're about to see..."
And then when he came on, "I was like, Oh! Oh my gosh, what in the world?" I didn't know, all the way from auditioning and all the way through recording, what [the sequence] was going to look like. I had no idea. They showed me some art concept things for Ekko and the Firelights and stuff like that. But honestly, I didn't know enough to know what it was going to look like. And when I saw that, I was like, "How do I ever get over something like this?"
The season ends with Ekko getting partnered up with Heimerdinger. What other characters would you like to see Ekko interact with in Season 2?
I would love to see Ekko and Mel interact. That would be crazy... There's one thing about Arcane that I was very interested in, because of the poverty difference, because of the difference between the top city and the Undercity, race isn't a thing that is discussed between the characters. So I would love to see how people 토토사이트 that look the same interact. Is there that sort of thing, or is everybody just there? I would also love to see them interact just because Ekko is so smart, and she might be like, "Oh, you could be used... We could take you back to Noxus and you could build a big anything." That would be pretty interesting.