Arcane Co-Creator Talks Decision to End the Series With Season 2 (Exclusive)

When Netflix announced that Arcane would finally be coming back with Season 2 in early November, it surprised fans by also confirming that this would be the end of the series. Since the arrival of Season 1 of Arcane in late 2021, the League of Legends animated series has gone on to be one of the most successful that Netflix has ever seen. Naturally, many viewers assumed that this would lead to Arcane sticking around for many years to come with multiple seasons to follow. Instead, those in charge of the show have decided to go in a different direction, although this outcome was always part of the plan.

In an interview with ComicBook prior to Season 2 of Arcane releasing, series co-creator Christian Linke expanded on the thought process behind ending the show at this point. Linke said that when Arcane was first conceptualized, those in charge of the series always had a throughline story in place for its main characters. That being said, it didn’t know how long it would take to tell this story and no specific episode counts were established. As work on Season 2 continued, though, it became clear that this would be the final outing for the show.

Related: Arcane Season 2 Trailer Released

“We always had a story in mind with a beginning and an end. I think it was really just the character arcs. We knew that there was a specific thing we wanted to do,” Linke said. “We didn’t necessarily have a specific episode count in mind, but we always knew it would be a finite story. It wasn’t this open-ended concept for a series. It was pretty organic for us so there was never this question of, ‘Oh, when will it end? We don’t know.’ We knew from the start.”

Even though Linke and the other creators of Arcane always had the broad strokes of the series nailed down, that doesn’t mean that it was ever easy to develop. In fact, Linke said that one of the biggest challenges of Season 2 has been bringing about an end to the show’s vast cast of characters and their respective arcs. While some characters are more central to the plot of Arcane than others, Linke said it was important for some of the less notable side characters to have their own stories wrapped up in a satisfying way.

“I don’t know how many TV shows you’ve watched where 10 or 11 characters all get a satisfying full arc paid off and resolved. I don’t think I have,” he continued. “It’s daunting. It was just part of what we built. We wanted this kind of ensemble story. […] That’s the thing about a video game adaptation. There’s always going to be someone, no matter if you banish one character into this side-character land, there are going to be millions of people who will be like, ‘What the f**k? What about my character? Why aren’t they getting their proper arc?’ It was just a responsibility that was always there. We can’t run away from that. We have to give everyone a proper story.”

Arcane is set to return next week on November 9th with its first three episodes of Season 2 premiering at once. The following week on November 16th will see episodes four, five, and six arriving, before the final three episodes will then roll out on November 23rd. Be sure to stay tuned to ComicBook as we’ll have a lot more to share with you tied to Arcane in the weeks ahead.