Arcane season 2 showrunner says the $250 million budget was "risky," but "it's just nice to see that we didn't waste people's money"
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By now you’ve probably read several stories aboutArcane’s reported $250 million budget. Showrunner Christian Linke says while that exact figure is incorrect, the budget is still “high”, and he thinks the risk was worth it.
“I think one of the hard things about the creative world is that if you do risky things or things that make people raise their eyebrows, if you stick the landing you’re a genius visionary,” Linke tells us. “If you don’t stick the landing, you’re an idiot. And there’s really no way around it.”
Arcanehas certainly stuck the landing. Critics and fans alike love it, and it’s even getting some people to tryLeague of Legends, the game it’s based on, for the first time. Those poor naive people, they don’t know what they’re getting themselves into.
“There was a book called Loon Shots,” Linke explains. “It talks about how easy it is to doubt, how cheap it is to doubt, because success is unlikely. If it fails, you’re right, and it was an easy investment for you. If you’re wrong after not believing in it, then, hey, you know, it was unlikely. It’s just cheap to doubt.”
If a studio gives a show a low budget and it fails, oh well, no harm done, write it off as a loss and claim the tax benefits. But sinking hundreds of millions into something is a lot more scary, even if it can create something incredible if spent wisely. Linke previously told us that the money went to securing top-quality voice actors andgiving the animators time to create beautiful art.
“You expose yourself when you take big risks, and people will attack you,” Linke says. “People will question you. It’s not so much that I feel vindicated. It’s just that I think it is nice to see that we didn’t waste people’s money. I think that’s the only way to really put it. We’re not doing it to be megalomaniacs. We really just have always dreamt of the quality of animation we see in movies. We want to see that in serialized content and animation. It really only just started from there, because we love animation.”
The risk certainly paid off, as ourArcane season 2 reviewsays its “Stunning animation and a bigger scope reaches thrilling new heights”.
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I’m Issy, a freelancer who you’ll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I’ve always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you’ll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I’m currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.
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