It’s no secret that Riot Games’ animated Netflix series, Arcane, has been a massive hit among both League of Legends fans and the general viewing public since the launch of its first season on 6 November 2021. However, new reports suggest that there was a literal price to pay for its success, with the series apparently costing US$250 million across its two seasons.
This information comes via Variety, which highlighted not only how the show became the most expensive animated series ever on streaming or linear TV, but also the consequences of such hefty spending despite its success, as the series is set to end after its second season, falling short of its originally intended five-season arc.
Arcane was the first step in the League of Legends creator’s ambitious Hollywood goals, previously hiring key executives from major studios such as Paramount and HBO to form a dedicated Entertainment Division for a slew of planned live-action and animated shows based on its IPs. But to date, Riot Games has little to show for it beyond the two-season series, with its over-spending and unmet goals being attributed, according to Variety’s sources, to the company’s inexperience when it comes to handling the intricacies of entertainment production.
Despite this, Riot co-founder and chief product officer Marc Merrill maintains the company’s commitment to producing high-quality shows, while also admitting that they still have a lot to learn. “Our ambitions in entertainment haven’t changed,” he wrote in an email to Variety, “What changed as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: We realized that getting it right takes a lot more time than we’d originally expected, and so we recalibrated our development, output goals and teams with that in mind.”
Merrill also stood by the results of the apparent US$250 million spending, but declined to give any confirmation, stating that the team was “more than comfortable with the spend it took to deliver a show that was worthy of our players’ time.”
While it’s unfortunate that the well-received series would also be so short-lived, co-creator Christian Linke promised audiences a satisfying wrap-up to the storyline, and more Runeterra adventures to come via an update alongside the announcement that the series would end with its second season.
Season 2 of Arcane will air in three parts like its predecessor, with episodes launching on 9 November, 16 November and 23 November this year.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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