Who is in the Arcane cast? Arcane somewhat came out of nowhere. Sure, it's loosely based on the League of Legends characters and world, but could have anyone guessed the heights it would reach after a relatively quiet build-up to season 1?
Arcane, the best animated series to come from Netflix yet, popped off like fireworks in the night sky — or like a rocket, courtesy of everyone's favorite traumatized troublemaker, Jinx. Its only crime? Sending us into mourning after the heartbreaking update letting us know the Arcane season 2 release date won't be in 2023.
If you're wondering which of the Arcane cast members are behind your favorite Arcane characters, look no further than our list of some of the brightest talent working in animation today: the voice actors from the League of Legends series.
The main Arcane cast list:
- Hailee Steinfeld as Vi
- Ella Purnell as Jinx
- Kevin Alejandro as Jayce Talis
- Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman
- Jason Spisak as Silco
- Toks Olagundoye as Mel Medarda
- Harry Lloyd as Viktor
- JB Blanc as Vander
- Reed Shannon as Ekko
- Mick Wingert as Heimerdinger
- Mia Sinclair Jenness as Powder
Hailee Steinfeld as Vi
Vi is the tough but burdened elder sibling in Arcane. After a troubled upbringing and dead parents, Vi quickly learned that nothing gets handed to you in Zaun. When Xander took her and her younger sister Powder in, she resolved to protect her family. Vi feels a lot of weight on her shoulders and has a realist attitude. Ultimately, she just wants to solve things in her personal life and bring Jinx back from the edge.
Hailee Steinfeld is one half of the series' Yin and Yang of Jinx and Vi, lending her voice to the latter. Steinfeld has been working for years, earning an Oscars nomination at a young age for her role in True Grit. She then joined the Pitch Perfect franchise which helped further her music career — being a talent behind the screen wasn't enough apparently. Steinfeld's career-best turn is in Dickinson, a creative Apple TV Plus series about the mind of American poet Emily Dickinson and her secret muse, Sue.
Lately, she's been kicking it with Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Disney Plus introduced us to the lovable archer Kate Bishop. And we recently spoke to Spider-Gwen herself in an Across the Spider-Verse interview.
Ella Purnell as Jinx
Jinx is Arcane's most popular character, and it's not just because of her outstanding design; her thematically deep interiority is the crux of the show. There are a lot of politics, class warfare, and magical threads, but Arcane at its center is about her lost soul. Growing up, Jinx always felt like a screw-up, and a deadly mistake resulted in her believing she had been abandoned. Years of poor mental health and a manipulative father figure later, she's unstable and completely enthralling.
As for who plays the far-gone younger sister, Jinx, Ella Purnell had a breakout role on Yellowjackets, but like others from the best horror series on Paramount Plus, she has had a couple of fantastic years. Purnell was the last shred of civility in Yellowjackets as Jackie, appeared in Zack Snyder's zombie movie Army of the Dead, and is the voice of Powder, or more accurately now, Jinx — Mia Sinclair Jenness handed the reigns over to the Australian (shockingly good accent magic, we know) after episode 3. The swap did leave us wondering just how old is Jinx in Arcane, though.
Purnell brings Jinx's delusion, paranoia, and nail-biting qualities to life brilliantly, even while putting on an entirely different voice. It took co-creators Christian Linke and Alex Yee 3 years to cast the right actor, thank God they did.
Kevin Alejandro as Jayce Talis
Here's our troubled inventor turned politician Jayce Talis, a central figure in the story as the man who brought Hex-tech to Piltover. Initially coming in with nothing but good intentions, he finds himself knee-deep in politics he's not prepared for and ends up taking in the ignorant biases around him. The naivety is quickly driven out of him by Mel, but more on her later.
Kevin Alejandro is a genre TV veteran, with time spent in the Arrowverse, Lucifer, Southland, and True Blood. The Texas-born actor also has behind-the-scenes experience in the director's chair, which makes sense considering how long he's been absorbing filmmaking on different sets in his decades-long career. Alejandro's grounded performance in Netflix's best fantasy series lends an authoritative yet arrogant quality to Jayce.
Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman
Caitlyn Kiramman is a determined yet sensitive young enforcer who learns through meeting Vi that she's joined a corrupt institution. Motivated to prove herself beyond the nepotism of her position and fight for justice, throughout the show her view widens. She's a sweetheart, really.
Scottish actor Katie Leung is the voice behind Caitlyn. You may recognize Leung from the Harry Potter cast, where she played Harry's love interest. Most recently she also was Ash in Amazon Prime Video's sci-fi series Peripheral. In April 2023, she joined the thriller series Nightsleeper.
Leung has shared that she didn't do research on the game iteration of her character, wanting to make her Caitlyn a new entity, and she certainly did, bringing a soothing English accent along with her which suits the blue-haired character perfectly.
Jason Spisak as Silco
The shifty and calculated Silco is a great villain (or anti-hero, depending on who you ask). Vengeful toward a city that neglects his people and a self-admitted extremist, Silco believes there is no way to make Zaun prosper without breaking a few eggs. He's not void of emotion, however; he truly did love Jinx as a daughter and at one time saw Vander as a brother.
Jason Spisak is one of the names in this list who primarily comes from a voice-acting background. Spisak is an accomplished man in the booth with a host of credits to his name in the video game and animation space In an era of stunt casting for even the best animated movies, it's nice to see voice actors get their due like this.
If Spisak wasn't such a chameleon and you had an ear comparable to a bat's, you may have heard him in DCU projects such as the Green Lantern animated series, Young Justice, and Lego DC Batman: Family Matters.
Toks Olagundoye as Mel Medarda
Nigerian-born Toks Olagundoye served up piercing intellect and regality in Arcane — allowing Mel's dutiful and coy personality to cut through louder characters. A political animal, Mel is the most cunning character in Arcane. While she's not evil by any means, she is willing to do whatever is needed to achieve her goals. The exception? Needless death. being that daughter of a warlord will do that to you.
In live-action, Olagundoye is known as Hayley Shipton in the procedural drama series Castle and was Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the sitcom The Neighbors. And in animation, fellow animated series Carmen Sandiego, and a role as Nanefua Pizza in Steven Universe. You'll also see her in the Frasier reboot. She can do it all, so of course she's behind Mel — the most calculated and socially adept Arcane character.
Harry Lloyd as Viktor
Harry Loyd is a British actor who earned a British Academy Television Award nomination for his work on Channel 4's miniseries The Fear before joining Arcane.
If you're noticing a theme — wildly different accents between characters and cast — you're about to notice it again. Lloyd swaps his English accent for a European one, often sullen and tired while in character.
Lloyd's most recent project outside of Arcane was the movie The Lost King in 2022. The actor is prolific in British TV circles.
JB Blanc as Vander
Pour one out! Father figure Vander who served as the emotional crux of Jinx's creation was portrayed by JB Blanc, a French-British actor.
Blanc has been working on video games and animation for decades and has also directed some films and television. Interestingly, Blanc also has ties to the source material unlike most of the other cast members.
Among his accolades are his role as Caustic in Apex Legends, and his directorial work on Call of Duty: Vanguard. Vander may be dead… but Blanc could return for season 2 — more on that in our Arcane season 2 League of Legends characters wishlist.
Reed Shannon as Ekko
Reed Shannon is the singer and actor behind Ekko, the lovable boy turned Firelight hoping to revolutionize the Undercity. For a deeper look at his backstory, check out Ekko explained. Shannon is a music artist with released work you can listen to right now on music streaming platforms or on his YouTube channel.
You can also watch him in one of the many projects involved in the stranded girls era of TV, The Wilds. Unfortunately canceled after its second season, Shannon had a series regular role in season 2 and did well to hold attention among a strong ensemble.
Mick Wingert as Heimerdinger
Mick Wingert is a voice actor and voice-over coach. He's not just selling his talent, he's teaching it! Wingert's work as the level-headed but overwhelmed council member Heimerdinger is a far cry from what he sounds like in real life, and that's because he has lots of experience in the world of animation.
The American actor has worked on the Kung-Fu Panda movies as well as a number of Marvel series catered to young audiences, like some others in Arcane's cast.
Mia Sinclair Jenness as Powder
Jenness was about 10 years old when she first started circling Arcane, and approaching 16 when it came out. If there's an example of the passionate, artistic dedication to bringing this series to life from everyone involved, that's it.
Considering her age, Jenness has an impressive filmography with appearances on a slew of kids' shows and even a guest spot as young Frieda in Orange is the New Black.
Everyone in the Arcane cast
Every actor in the Arcane cast list:
- Hailee Steinfeld as Vi
- Ella Purnell as Powder/Jinx
- Mia Sinclair Jenness as young Powder
- Kevin Alejandro as Jayce Talis
- Katie Leung as Caitlyn Kiramman
- Molly Harris as young Caitlyn Kiramman
- Jason Spisak as Silco
- Toks Olagundoye as Mel Medarda
- Harry Lloyd as Viktor
- JB Blanc as Vander
- Reed Shannon as Ekko
- Miles Brown as young Ekko
- Mick Wingert as Cecil B. Heimerdinger
- Supporting
- Amirah Vann as Sevika
- Remy Hii as Marcus and Tobias Kiramman
- Abigail Marlowe as Cassandra Kiramman and Eve
- Yuri Lowenthal as Mylo
- Roger Craig Smith as Claggor
- Josh Keaton as Deckard and Salo
- Fred Tatasciore as Benzo
- Bill Lobley as Huck
- Shohreh Aghdashloo as Grayson
- Brett Tucker as Singed
- Mara Junot as Shoola and Jules
- Dave B. Mitchell as Vern, Hoskel, and Harold
- Miyavi as Finn
- Erica Lindbeck as Elora
- Ellen Thomas as Ambessa Medarda
- Mira Furlan as Babette
- Kimberly Brooks as Sky Young
- Imagine Dragons as The Last Drop band
- JID as The Last Drop band rapper
- Ray Chen as orchestra concert soloist
To say we're patiently waiting for season 2 would be a lie. You can use our new on Netflix guide to find other steampunk stories, but nothing is hitting the same. In the meantime, why not find out about the new movies coming soon and see our list of the best TV series or the best Netflix series?
If you can't get enough of this show, we've gone into the details of the Arcane soundtrack as well as the different characters in Caitlyn explained and Vi explained. Or, if you're curious about the LoL side of things: is Arcane canon in League of Legends and can you watch Arcane without playing League of Legends?