Netflix is surely hoping to make big numbers with Arcane season 2, as the entire show is apparently the most expensive animated series ever.
League of Legends developer Riot and Netflix are obviously very successful companies and probably have quite a bit of money to spend on various projects. We’ve seen that with Netflix many times before, spending tons on shows at obscene amounts, hoping to attract more subscribers with a few big shows. Arcane is obviously a pretty smart show to try to do that, given League of Legends’ pre-existing massive audience, but it’s been unclear how much the show cost to make. Except in a new report from Variety, it has been shared that both seasons, which have a total of 18 episodes, specifically cost Riot a ridiculous $250 million.
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For context, that makes it the most expensive animated series ever made, whether on streaming or traditional television. According to sources who spoke to Variety, this expense is apparently a reflection of Riot’s inexperience when it comes to entertainment production (presumably television entertainment, given that games are, you know, entertainment and League of Legends is hugely successful). Riot co-founder Marc Merrill highlighted to Variety in a statement that the developer’s “ambitions in entertainment have not changed.”
“We never intended to operate as a traditional studio with traditional schedules. What did change as we learned more was our expectations of ourselves: We realized that doing it well takes a lot more time than we originally expected, so that we recalibrated our development, production goals and teams with that in mind.
Merrill did not directly comment on the cost of the show, but did say, “We are more than comfortable with the expense it took to put on a show that was worthy of our players’ time,” so whether or not it was that much seems like a success. , whether financial or not, is a bit irrelevant to Riot.
Arcane season 2 is also the final season of the show, although Riot has intentions of making more shows, so perhaps we’ll get a broader look at the world of League of Legends in future series; although they probably cost less.