Was Arcane meant to have five seasons? The creator of League of Legends sets the record straight on those rumours you’ve been hearing about

Arcane is ending after two seasons, but after some rumours about the show running for five seasons has spread, League of Legend’s creator has cleared the air.

Earlier this year, to the surprise and dismay of many fans, Netflix announced that Arcane’s second season would also be its last. That’s mostly because Riot has some broader plans for the animated version of the world of League of Legends, but all the same somehow some rumours started to spread that there were meant to be five seasons of Arcane. In response to an article covering a comment from League of Legends creator and Riot co-founder Marc Merrill but why Arcane is ending after two seasons that was shared in Reddit, the developer posted his own comment explaining that the show was “always written to be two seasons.”

“The confusion is because internally there was a budget conversation about ‘approving 5 seasons’ – which simply means we were setting aside a bunch of money for lots of development and is completely irrelevant to the Arcane creative,” Merrill continues (it’s worth noting that the show’s total budget, including advertising, is reported to have cost $250 million, which might be part of where some of the rumours came from aside from what Merrill explained). “The creative and making something great is what the priority should always be for Riot and our teams.

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“We have also always envisioned telling more stories and continuing to expand the universe. That hasn’t ever changed – people just jump at rumors or misleading headlines and Riot didn’t correct them – but given those rumors gained momentum, happy to clarify. Just because that is our intent, doesn’t mean it’s easy or that we can pump these things out like a factory – just like making games that are worthy of players time / love is really hard, so too is telling great stories and making incredible shows / films (especially when we are building it from scratch for the first time).”

So, no, Arcane was never meant to get five seasons, even if there were talks about budgeting for them. Still, our own Connor has been enjoying season 2 plenty, and is finding it basically impossible to stop watching.