If you’re into TV series and dramas, you’ll probably enjoy the upcoming Chinese esports drama League of Legends. Here is what we know so far.
Image Credits | Tencent Video
League of Legends Esports Drama – What is it?
Esports has become a widespread and mainstream phenomenon, with most people knowing its existence. Throughout the years, there have been a couple of gaming or esports-related Chinese tv series (dramas) like “The King’s Avatar” or “You are my Glory”, and all of them found great success and were well-received.
That said, most of these dramas never had a “real” esports game included, as they had fictional titles that existed only during the series. It looks like it won’t be the case anymore soon, as the League of Legends esports drama is in the works.
While it was already rumored in the past few months, we got the official confirmation from the director of the upcoming TV series, Zhang Yi Mou. On April 9th, he revealed in a press conference that he has two projects planned for this year, one of them being the League of Legends drama adaptation by YouHug Media.
🍉Zhang Yimou will be directing his first drama and it’ll be about esports and League of Legends pic.twitter.com/QEKXus3Te0
— 🍉 田里的猹 (@melonconsumer) March 5, 2023
Zhang Yimou is a notorious and famous director in China, with decades of filming experience. He not only won multiple awards during his career, but he also directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
This will be the first time Zhang Yi Mou will be directing a web drama. He said that the esports theme will be quite the challenge for him, as he’s hoping to create something “cool and different”. He also added that while he doesn’t understand it as much, his grandchildren do play the game, proving that it’s quite important to the younger audiences. “targeted at young audiences.”
Read more: Riot CEO reveals updates on Arcane Season 2
LoL Esports drama – Casting, Filming Schedule, and Release date
Zhang Yi Mou also revealed that filming should begin later this year, around September. While the actors haven’t been confirmed yet, recently film-reviewing platform 豆瓣 (Dou Ban) showed Jackson Yee (易烊千玺) among the cast, so he might be the main protagonist of the series. No other cast members have been mentioned yet.
Image Credits | 元气桌面 (Yuan Qi Zhuo Mian)
According to the Baidu wiki page, the series will have a total of 40 episodes, with each lasting 45 minutes. Considering that filming starts toward the end of 2023, the expected release date should be somewhere in 2024.
Below you can find the synopsis for the upcoming series:
The near-retired LPL superstar 马达 (Ma Da) and the talented senior high school student 白阳 (Bai Yang), due to an accidental soul swap, have obtained the life of their dreams. The first extended his career and set off to make up for the regrets of the past, while the other experienced the delights of a superstar player. Unfortunately, they will also have to face the difficulties in each other’s life together. The two lines run parallel, with the passion of youth and the journey of chasing dreams meeting at the very end.
Read also: Arcane season 2 - Lore, Updates, Release date and more