We have one more week before Arcane officially wraps up in its final arc. The 2-season Netflix series is not just one of the most highly acclaimed animated shows of all time but is also the most expensive. However, its showrunners and producers are adamant that all good things must end. Arcane’s creative heads want to move on from the Netflix animated series and end it in Season 2.
These words came from co-showrunner Christian Linke and Director Pascal Charrue in an interview with Animation Magazine. This was what Charrue had to say about their beloved show:
“We spent nine years at this point on these 11 or so characters. So there’s also something about wanting to make sure that we are able to tell the stories of other characters that we’re also really passionate about. There’s people who were single when they started on Arcane and now they’re married and have kids in school,” Charrue reasoned out.
Meanwhile, Linke was thankful to have been given such a huge opportunity, and by Riot Games (League of Legends developer) nonetheless.
“We were also just really lucky that we were able to have a higher budget for an animated series, because we were an IP [intellectual property] by Riot. We were able to really put art first. You don’t often get that opportunity,” thanked Linke.
Aside from that, Riot’s co-founder also mentioned in a tweet separate from the interview that one of the reasons why they wanted to move on from Arcane was League of Legends had many other characters. It seems they don’t want to spend too much time on the handful they have in Arcane. Prolonging the sister-vs-sister drama also won’t work too well lore-wise.
It’s a bittersweet confirmation. On the one hand, Arcane is ending very soon, but on the other hand, Riot Games is possibly setting up other LoL characters with their animated show. It’s also possible that Arcane Season 2’s ending will hint at something bigger in the future for the animated series.
Runeterra has Lots of Other Regions
Arcane, after all, is the prequel to League of Legends‘ lore about the eternal war between Zaun and Piltover. Other shows could cover the many regions of Runeterra and their respective characters.
To date, Arcane has been branded as the most expensive animated show ever. It reportedly cost over $250 million for its 18 episodes throughout two seasons. Many speculated that the cost might have been one of the reasons for the cancelation or the abrupt end.
Others chalked it up to the on-brand Netflix cancelation, where most Netflix shows end or get canceled after two seasons. Adding more seasons apparently will further increase the cost of producing the shows, especially for Arcane‘s case.
Simply put, Arcane had to end in Season 2 to make room for other League of Legends content, if all goes well.
