‘Arcane’s Hefty $250 Million Reported Budget Explained by EP

The popular animated Netflix series Arcane Season 2, set in Riot’s League of Legends universe, boasts a hefty production cost of $250 million. The series’ executive music producer, Alex Seaver, is spilling the nitty-gritty details on why the highly anticipated second and final season flaunts a generous price tag and the major reason was the synergy between all parties involved to create a meticulous final product.

In an interview with Screen Rant, Seaver explained that the prolonged production time and fat budget for Arcane Season 2 was partly a result of Riot Games wanting to guarantee that the series’ production was spick and span. Seaver also remarked that Arcane Season 2 broke free of a “video game adaptation curse” while lauding Fortische Production for their stellar animation. He also went on to shower showrunner Christian Linke with praise for discovering the animation studio, and emphasizing seamless coordination, as he firmly believes that smooth lines of communication between all those involved were essential to producing an impressive final product! Seaver spilled his two cents on the high budget, which included but wasn’t limited to:

“There’s all these articles about how expensive it was, it is because we are not a film and television studio, we’re a game company. We didn’t lease out the work to traditional people in film and television, which can totally work. We have talks every single week. We’re in communication. We do a bunch of trips out to Paris and that’s the whole thing. It’s written by us and the music’s made by us with wonderful artists.”

All in all, the takeaway is that the real investment went into assembling a star-studded cast featuring names like Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell, among others, while bringing the animation to life in Paris at Fortiche. Not to forget all those wonderful artists that do most of the wizardry behind-the-scenes, the in-house music production, and the obsessive attention to detail in syncing it all together — and it becomes crystal clear where the money went. The fact that it’s all being produced by a game studio only adds to the excitement, and of course, budget.

‘Arcane’ Showrunner Reveals a Series Exploring Three New Regions in The Universe

While Arcane Season 2 marks the end of the series, Arcane co-creator and showrunner Christian Linke has teased what lies ahead. In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+, Linke revealed that they were in the early stages of another project set in Runeterra — which he had briefly mentioned in a Twitch interview prior to this.

The showrunner explained that while they are exploring other regions like Noxus and Ionia, their main focus is on driving the story toward a specific champion or character. Linke also shared that the production time would be drawn out depending on whether the project would be a series or a movie.

Most details of the project have been kept under wraps for now. Linke shared that once they have a clear vision in place, the studio will spill further details on the project, which has been in development for a year. He expressed how finding the right vision, idea, story, and people was essential while further justifying the lengthy production time in the following words:

“That’ll take years, and once we have confidence that something’s happening, we’ll talk more about it.”

Both seasons of Arcane are now streaming on Netflix in the US.

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