There is a devastating answer to why Warwick’s design differs between Arcane and League of Legends.

While fans cheered at Warwick’s debut in Season 2 of Arcane, some wondered why he looked different from his League of Legends version.

It’s no secret, especially to League of Legends fans, that the beast hanging in Singed’s laboratory was Vander twisted into the character of Warwick. There were plenty of clues in Season 1, coupled with voice lines from the video game that directly connected him to Vi and Jinx.

Warwick’s Struggle of Man & Beast in Arcane

In Arcane Season 2, Vander is finally reunited with his family. However, thanks to Jayce killing Viktor, the last fans see of Vander is him going berserk and seemingly succumbing to the beast within.

Then, in the final episode of Arcane Act 2, Season 2, “The Message Hidden Within the Pattern,” Vi and Jinx brought Vander to Viktor’s commune, hoping that he could help cure Vander of his addled mind. In Viktor’s first attempt, he revealed that “Vander’s psyche is deeply entangled with that of the beast.”

However, he persisted. Over several days, Viktor seemingly succeeded in unearthing Vander’s memories and personality buried deep within his psyche. Unfortunately, this didn’t last long when Jayce blasted a hole through Viktor.

As a result, everyone Viktor touched and healed fell to the ground, comatose or dead, including Vander. What appeared to happen was that what little of humanity Viktor had touched in Vander was now gone, leaving only a raging, magma-spewing beast.

Warwick’s Glorious Evolution

Warwick’s design in Arcane has far more human facial features than his video game counterpart, which sports the head of an actual wolf. This is undoubtedly meant to reflect Vander’s last shreds of humanity before he completely loses himself to the beast.

In the final moments of “The Message Hidden Within the Pattern,” Isha blew herself up alongside a rampaging Vander. It is too bad her sacrifice will likely be in vain, with Warwick no doubt surviving and his “regenerative” qualities mentioned by Singed causing him to evolve, looking more like Warwick in League of Legends.

Coupled with Vander’s subconscious either being destroyed by Viktor’s death or buried so deep it may as well be, all that remains now is Warwick, a beast who will eventually haunt the bowls of Piltover as the infamous Wrath of Zaun.