Arcane Season 2 breaks animation record ahead of premiere on Netflix

Ahead of its highly anticipated premiere on Netflix, Arcane Season 2 has already set a significant animation milestone, making history before the release of its final episodes.

Arcane season 2 is poised to continue the story of Jinx (Ella Purnell), Vi (Hailee Steinfeld), Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), and the rest of the Netflix series' ensemble cast following the harrowing events of season 1, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The show still has plenty of backstory to explore from its video game source material, which is expected to be told over the course of nine episodes, being released in three-episode chunks weekly in November.

Now, Variety has confirmed that Arcane season 2 has helped the League of Legends adaptation break a massive animation record, the series becoming the most expensive animated TV show of all time. Between its 18 episodes, the show cost $250 million to produce, setting a major record for both streaming and linear TV. While the show was originally meant to run until season 5, the budget for these episodes alone still managed to beat out any other animated TV show that's ever been produced.

What Arcane's record budget means for season 2

Arcane season 1's cliffhanger ending saw Jinx use the gemstone to power a rocket, firing it at Piltover's council room during a meeting, just as they're about to grant Zaun the independence Silco (Jason Spisak) was fighting for. Since the show ended with this massive event in 2021, it's taken nearly three years of production for season 2 to be completed. This is only half the time it took for season 1, as previously confirmed by Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent. Even so, it seems a massive budget was still spent on both seasons to ensure their high quality.

Because of the massive budget the show utilized, it seems like season 2 will deliver just as much quality through its visuals as season 1 did. The detailed animation of the series blends a variety of animation techniques together, giving the characters of Arcane and their world a unique blend that's emphasized by how everything is presented. With nine more episodes left and such a massive budget being reported, it skyrockets expectations as to how engaging the new episodes are going to be.

News.Az