This article contains spoilers for Arcane through Season 2.
When League of Legends animated series Arcane first hit screens in 2020 it quickly became a runaway hit, building a massive fanbase that reached far outside the already immense following of the popular multiplayer online battle arena game. With the second and final season of the smash show now in the rearview, showrunner Christian Linke tells IGN that he's still reckoning with the final episodes and the response to them.
A recent screenshot Linke posted on X sums up the headspace he's in after the release which has divided some segments of the show's fandom. "There were two messages and one was like, 'Thank you for the show. I absolutely love it.' The next one's like, 'you suck.' So I'm honestly still processing, still listening, still kind of taking it all in."
"At the end of the day, we made something that is for the League audience and we tried to really kind of capture the truth of the champions, the characters they've fallen in love with," he says. "It's important that we do get it. But overall the reactions were really, really amazing. So I'm just trying to focus on also learning the right things and taking away the right learnings."
The three-part final act introduced audiences to an alt-universe where Hextech was never created and Powder (Mia Sinclair Jenness) never became Jinx, instead getting to help a more enlightened and peaceful version of Zaun thrive. It also set up a vital relationship between Ekko and Powder that would go on to set up a game-changing team-up in the final episode.
While the time jump/multiverse combo took some viewers by surprise — and became one of the show's most acclaimed episodes — it was a story that the creators were desperate to see come to life. "We were always inspired by this version of Powder and we were always thinking 'who would she have been?' Because she's this reflection of what Zaun would be like if fully enabled! So I think that's really fun, and I think that it was a selfish thing because we just wanted to see this, you know?"
While that unexpected diversion may have taken the heroes to a new world, the final three episodes also brought in recognizable in-game lore like the invention of Ekko's Zero-Drive, Viktor's famed "Glorious Evolution" line, and even a three-eyed raven that hints at the existence of fan favorite character Swain, teasing his potential inclusion in future League TV projects.
But for Linke and the creative team, the most important thing was bringing the feel of the experience of playing as each of the champions to the screen. "Like how nimble Ekko is. How tough Vi is. How Jinx needs to keep her distance but if you get close to her she's toast." Linke explains. "We tried to figure out how it feels, the emotion of it, to play the game, so that was definitely a big focus for us."
Those emotional beats were vital to the finale not just for the big action set pieces but also for the many characters who didn't survive the series. While audiences were heartbroken at the loss of Champions like Heimerdinger and Jayce, for Linke it was a matter of story. "It really was supposed to be part of their arc. How are they changing? What are the choices they make? And whatever the ending there is for a character it is the consequences of their actions."
With that said, there was one death that fans at the premiere — and on the internet — loudly celebrated, that of Junior Officer Maddie Nolan (Katy Townsend), the Enforcer who wormed her way into Caitlin's (Katie Leung) bed only to betray her to the Noxian general Ambessa (Ellen Thomas). "That got a reaction that was very strong, I'll never forget that."
One of the big reveals was that the series' big bad was the Hex-tech upgraded version of Viktor (Harry Lloyd) and it was up to a grizzled-version of Jayce (Kevin Alejandro) to save the day by sacrificing himself along with Viktor, with the pair seemingly disappearing into the Arcane. While Linke was tight-lipped on whether the pair survived or died, he did share his passion for their friendship. "That relationship really is special and complex and there's this common belief that they've gone astray over time and I dunno, I really care about their relationship," Linke explains.
Much fuss has been made about the immense budget of Arcane, including a viral article at Variety, that revealed the fact that the series is the most expensive animated project ever made. While it sparked heated conversations online and off about the cost of streaming to Linke it was money well spent and another lesson learned. "That's what I think has been surprising for us, is that in animation everything just goes to the talent. So, us spending money I think is good for everyone that works in animation. So it's something that I personally am really happy about, but because we're investing in art."
It doesn't seem like the high-cost is impacting any future projects as when it comes to what's next for Linke and the possibility of more adaptations — one of which he recently revealed during a Twitch stream was already deep into production— in the world of League of Legends, he reassures fans that he's already looking forward. "It's really just developing the next products and the next stories and continuing what we started. We worked on this for nine years, but this is the first time we did something like this. We wanna just learn from this and grow as creators, creatives, and people and yeah, tell more stories in the League IP."
