One of the creative minds behind Netflix's Arcane addressed the considerations that went into a potential Season 3 and a bit of what fans can expect from its incoming spin-offs.
After two critically acclaimed seasons on the streamer, the League of Legends-set animated series came to an end in November, bringing with it a close to the ongoing plight between dueling cities Zaun and Piltover, as well as potentially closing the book on some fan-favorite characters.
While Season 3 has been off the books for months, the animated universe will continue in some way. Instead of following up the latest batch of episodes with yet another sporting the Arcane name, the franchise will go forward with multiple spin-offs, telling other stories from across the video game world of Runeterrra.
Arcane Creator Breaks Down Potential Season 3 and Spin-Off Plans
In an exclusive conversation with The Direct conducted before the release of Arcane Season 2, co-creator Christian Linke revealed the team's thinking about skipping a Season 3 of the hit series and where the world may go in its planned spin-off.
When asked if a third season of Arcane was ever considered, Linke seemed to indicate that it was not, positing that they were always much more interested in "individual stories of certain characters" when looking past Season 2 and pursuing potential future spin-offs:
"Not Season 3 so much, but individual stories of certain characters that are in 'Arcane,' in both seasons."
There are a few characters he even has in mind as who he and the team would "definitely" like to "continue their stories in their own kind of franchise," but would not reveal any specifics about where these stories may go:
"[There] definitely are like, 'Hey, let's continue their stories in their own kind of franchises and stories.' So definitely, 'Arcane' is just the first. We want to continue telling stories."
This is not the first time Linke has addressed these potential spin-off ideas recently, even going as far as to say on a recent League of Legends creator's stream that they have already been in development on the next series for "about a year."
This next project seems to likely be leaning towards focusing on Toks Olagundoye Mel Medarda (the Noxian council member seen throughout Arcane Seasons 1 and 2).
Linke has indicated as such with his comments since Season 2' release, mentioning "Noxus, Ionia, and Demacia" as three regions in the world of League of Legends they would like to explore next.
Is Arcane's Spin-Off Plan a Good Idea?
As some fans reel with the idea that they may not be getting any more Arcane proper, this idea of spin-offs set in the world will surely bring up some complicated feelings.
As mentioned by Riot Games co-founder (the studio behind League of Legends) Marc Merrill in the wake of Season 2's finale, they have "a bunch" of stories in the works for this universe, with the most imminent one likely being that Noxus spin-off teased by Christian Linke:
"To clarify, he didn’t say three separate shows - said exploring three regions. We are exploring a bunch of different shows (and games)."
This would make the most sense, especially given the tease of some Noxus-focused characters at the end of Season 2, easily setting things up for the next spin-off.
While fans of the original series should be excited that Riot and the team behind the show are not full-on abandoning every character from Arcane, there will likely be some that bristle with the fact that a proper Season 3 is not coming and was seemingly never on the cards.
Some have taken issue with Arcane Season 2, particularly in how it was paced, with a certain contingent of fans calling it rushed and poorly paced.
While this may not have been the case, there are members of the Arcane community who believe the show could have used another season or two to tackle everything seen in the two seasons they got, just in a more digestible sort of way.
That is not to say fans were not satisfied with where the show left most of its characters. Fan favorites like Caitlyn and Vi finally got together (although even that has rustled some feathers), Mel has now risen to the head of her house, and Jayce and Viktor got the resolution audiences had long been waiting for.
However, a popular sentiment going around after Season 2 has been that the show may have been able to accomplish all that just dragged out across another full season on top of Season 2.
Hopefully, these feeling begin to subside as more of these spin-offs start to see the light of day and (fingers crossed) hit the same benchmark of quality set by the mainline Arcane series.
Arcane is streaming now on Netflix.
