Arcane's Ella Purnell Breaks Down Alt-Universe Jinx & Why There Are Subtle Differences In Her Voice Performance: “It Took Us A Second To Get There”

With Arcane season 2 bringing a world where the inciting heist had drastically different results, Ella Purnell explains how she set out to ensure her performances of Jinx and Powder were distinct. The hit Netflix animated series brought one of the realms of the League of Legends franchise to screens, exploring the citizens of two warring cities. Purnell voices Jinx, a traumatized and intelligent young woman who has incredible skill as an inventor and a complicated relationship with her sister, Vi (Hailee Steinfeld).

As Screen Rant attended Purnell's Megacon Orlando panel, the Arcane star reflected on how season 2 introduced a new side to Jinx with Powder, a version of the character who lost Vi in their fateful heist, leading to her growing up in a world where the tragedy united Piltover and Zaun. Purnell stated that she enjoyed the opportunity to explore a possibility that she hadn't considered previously. Despite having been part of the cast for several years, the star viewed playing Powder as portraying an entirely new character:

I really loved it. I was so looking forward to it, because I guess it's a question I didn't even really know I had. Like, what would Jinx have grown up to be like if she wasn't Jinx, right? And it was also a fun time. We worked on a show for, I don't know, five years, and then I got to play a new character, again, for the first time.

As such, Purnell drew upon the character's design to inform how she approached Powder's cooler, more composed personality, while also taking into account how her delivery wouldn't carry all the years of hardship she enjoyed in the original story. Check out Purnell's description below:

We found it together and tried different things, and it took us a second to get there, and it was very much informed by what she looked like. She looks kind of like an art student. Like, she's cool, and it's kind of fun to keep the raspiness of Jinx and the playfulness of her, you know? And she sort of probably has a lot less trauma than Jinx, so there's like, maybe it sits in a higher register, and that would subconsciously inform the view of the character. Things like that, already comes to play with, and so it's so beautiful. I haven't watched it, but I've seen bits of it.

How Purnell's Explanation Explores The Similarities Between Jinx & Powder

Despite A Happier Life, Powder Still Holds Some Scars From Her Main Universe Self

Powder may not be entirely free from trauma given the loss of Vi during the heist, but she is undeniably free from many of the tragedies that her main counterpart faced. Not only did Powder grow up in a healthier world, but the tragedy left her and her adoptive family closer, with Mylo (Yuri Lowenthal) and Claggor (Roger Craig Smith) living long lives and Silco (Jason Spisak) resolving his fractured relationship with Vander (JB Blanc). As such, she didn't blame herself for their deaths, and didn't have Silco embracing his worse tendencies and further influencing her.

Despite this, Purnell's performance of Powder inseason 2 still carries several evocations of who she could have been. Much like Mylo and Claggor's deaths stayed with Jinx, Vi's death remains with Powder, and the brief glimpses beneath her cleaner presentation show how she still holds a lot of resentment towards herself for her role in her sister's death, which the dimensionally-displaced Ekko (Reed Shannon) tries to aid her in coming to turns in. While Powder is a far cry from the infamous figure Jinx would become, Purnell's performance captures a consistent core at the heart of each character.

Our Thoughts On Arcane Season 2's Powder

The Character Left A Strong Impression On Viewers

Ekko and Heimerdinger's (Mick Wingert) trip into a new world is one of the highlights of Arcane season 2. As the series entered its final acts, the storyline offered some much-needed focus to Ekko's arc and contained some of the most masterfully handled visuals the already-acclaimed series could offer. But Powder's surprise arrival has clearly taken much of the viewer's attention.

With Jinx being one of Arcane's standout characters, many viewers enjoyed seeing the new side to her and how starkly she contrasted with the original version of the figure. As such, Purnell's perspective shows the care taken to ensure that Powder felt as true to the character's core elements.