If you're surprised to see a new Netflix series coming out on a Saturday, you're not alone, because the streamer rarely releases content on weekends. What's also surprising is that Netflix is ending said show after just two seasons, despite it being one of its biggest hits.
The show in question is Arcane season 2, an animated fantasy series which serves as a prequel to the video game League of Legends (though people who've seen it insist that you don't need to know about the game to enjoy the show).
First released in 2021, Arcane was a massive hit, netting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and winning four Primetime Emmy Awards and accolades in many other awards ceremonies. It remains one of Netflix's bigger animated series, despite not seeing an update in three years.
That is, until Saturday, November 9, when Arcane season 2 premiered onto Netflix. In another break from tradition beyond its Saturday air date, it's also got a weekly release: three episodes will come on the 9th with three more landing one week later and the final trio dropping a week after that.
Arcane is set in the League of Legends world of Runeterra, and in particular it focuses on two settlements: the futuristic city of Piltover and its seedy underbelly of Zaun. In them two sisters, Vi and Jinx, find themselves at the forefront of a conflict that could change the power dynamic between the two cities, but they end up on opposite sides of the battle lines.
The sisters are voiced by Fallout's Ella Purnell and Across the Spider-Verse's Hailee Steinfeld.
The first season of the show set up the conflict and put the sisters at odds, and the second season should show how they became the warriors from the video game. However fans who've been enjoying Arcane will be sad to know that this second season will be the last.
What's the reason for this cancellation? Well it's a rare reason in the TV world: the show's creators have simply finished telling the story they wanted to tell. In a quote shared on Netflix's own blog Tudum, the show's co-creator Christian Linke said "from the very beginning, since we started working on this project, we had a very specific ending in mind, which means the story of Arcane wraps up with this second season."
However soon afterwards Linke also teased that there might be more shows based on League of Legends on the way, so it might not be the end for good.
