Riot’s Live-Action Studio Gets New Leader After Arcane’s Success

On August 15, Riot Games revealed that a former Netflix employee will now lead its live-action studio as part of a restructuring of its executives.

The company responsible for League of Legends and the popular animated series Arcane announced that it will have two dedicated studios, one for animation and one for live-action projects, leading their TV and film development. These studios were mentioned by the developer in a recent article about connecting games with esports, music, and publishing.

Brian Wright, who previously served as the head of family and young adult programming at Netflix, will now be leading the live-action studio. During his time at the streaming company, he was responsible for overseeing popular shows such as Stranger Things, The Umbrella Academy, and Fuller House.

In 2021, he became a part of Riot’s new entertainment studio and played a key role in developing strategies for creating original films, TV series, and animation, prior to the launch of Arcane.

Just before the release of Arcane’s second and last season, the announcement was made. The animated series has proven to be popular among both League of Legends enthusiasts and general viewers on Netflix.

Arcane Season 2 won't come in 2023 — Fortiche/Netflix

Despite its involvement in live-action content through its esports broadcasts and the Paramount+ series Players, Riot has yet to fully dive into this realm. The single-season show, which parodied Riot’s esports tournament and featured a fictional League of Legends team, did not receive the same level of acclaim as Arcane.

Despite the show receiving positive reviews, it failed to attract mainstream audiences like the animated series did. As a result, Players was eventually taken off of Paramount+ and made available for free on the Funny to Die YouTube channel.

Projects that may potentially emerge from the new studio have not yet been disclosed. Riot has a track record of exploring various genres in different forms of media, such as music and games. Therefore, fans of the studio should not anticipate their next live-action venture to be another mockumentary series.

Despite having a partnership with Netflix, Riot has inked a contract with the streaming service for the release of Arcane and its mobile games, Dungeon Dwarves and Hextech Mayhem. However, there is no assurance that these live-action shows will not be made available on another streaming platform.