STAR Guardian is a brand new set of skins available in Riot Games’ hit esports game League of Legends.
Based on magical high school girls, and it could be the basis for the next Arcane, Netflix’s hit animated show set in the League of Legends world.
The complete opposite of Arcane’s darkly grim mood, Star Guardian has been a surprise hit both in and out of League of Legends
Arcane is a series inspired by the game, and was a surprise hit for the popular streaming service last year.
By the end of 2021, Arcane had knocked Squid Game off the top spot as the most watched show on Netflix that year.
Following up on Arcane’s success, we spoke with Stephanie Bedford, narrative producer at Riot Games, about the inspiration for the whimsical Star Guardian designs, and what are the studios hopes for the event.
We asked her whether classic Japanese TV series such as Sailor Moon had an influence on the designs.
Bedford confirmed our suspicions, telling GLHF: “We are constantly inspired by different cultures, media, other forms of entertainment, and art when we are doing our development.
“The original Star Guardian idea was championed by a group of super passionate individuals within Riot who enjoyed the magical girl genre and wanted to make something referential to this.
“We have a lot of fans within the development teams that were really passionate and drew on various expressions that were important to them.
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“But capturing the feeling of the genre and putting our own Riot twist on it was our overall approach.”
We took the chance to ask Bedford what Riot’s plans for the future of Star Guardian are, and whether it could be developed for TV after the massive success of Arcane.
She had high hopes for such a project: “I think all of us developers are fans of what our entertainment group has done with Arcane
“It would be amazing to see Star Guardian as a full length anime someday!
“It isn’t clear exactly where or what we will do with Star Guardian next, but it is clear that the fans love it as much as we do.
“That is something that is really important to us when making calls at Riot Games.”
Written by Georgina Young on behalf of GLHF.
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