‘Arcane’ returns with a vengeance: the Netflix show’s leads discuss its powerful final season

The word “outlier” may quickly come to mind when you think about it Arcane. No one expected the series to turn into the huge hit it has become; a phenomenon in fact, with surprisingly high demand for the Annecy preview show and avid fans camping out to catch a glimpse of the new and final season. Video games have long had a tricky relationship with screen customization – though they may do better in animation – and the real enjoyment of Arcane saw it not only soar over this historical hurdle, but also deliver a thoughtful, patient and mature take on the source material, with stylish verve to spare. We recently spoke with co-showrunner Christian Linke (the other is Alex Yee – a creative designer at Riot Games) via Zoom about the series.

When asked what was made Arcane stands out, Linke first emphasizes that they wanted a writers’ room more attuned to dramatic long forms. “We’ve definitely started Arcane at a time when there wasn’t much precedent for this approach,” he says. “People told us, ‘Hey, you can’t have 40-minute animated episodes; that’s insane.’ And I think there was just a dream of, “Well, we think you can do that.” I think the drama, the long pauses and silences between two characters are really things that have been very unusual, at least in Western animation.

Linke recognizes that Arcane was created due to unique circumstances. “We were also just very lucky that we were able to get a higher budget for an animated series because we were an IP (intellectual property) of Riot. We were really able to put art first. You don’t get that opportunity often.”

Other stories to tell

Pascal Charrue, who works with Arnaud Delord as series director, agreed that the series is a “UFO in the animation industry,” something they capitalized on by experimenting as much as possible. With such an unprecedented opportunity, you might wonder, “Why only two seasons?”

Both Charrue and Linke say this was always the plan, with the former emphasizing the enormous time commitment. “We’ve spent nine years on these 11 or so characters at this point,” Charrue says. “So there’s also something about making sure that we can tell other characters’ stories that we’re really passionate about.” To drive home this point, Linke adds, “There are people who were single when they started Arcane and now they are married and have school-age children.”

“Hopefully other studios and IPs will see that bigger budget animation, animated series and expressive animation can be really great, and there will just be more of it. I think that’s what everyone in our circles wants to see.”

— Co-showrunner Christian Linke

While some team members have lived with this show as long as they have with their growing families, Linke and Charrue wanted to not only rely on the mutual understanding of their unit, but also elevate new voices. “The first season was directed by the founders of Fortiche, who were really the original visionaries of the entire studio,” says Linke. “Season 2 had some new episode directors that came from storyboarders Arcane Season 1, so that we can grow and have fresh voices as well. So I think that was a big part of what we were able to do in Season 2, which just wasn’t possible before because it was still growing as a small project and a small studio. Charrue says the upcoming movie Penelope of Sparta is also done with a small team, but ArcaneThe longevity meant more opportunities to hire outside talent.

In addition to these recruitments, there is also a sense of continuity as Fortiche employees take on new positions. Charrue continued: “The animation director from Season 1, Barth Maunoury, is now directing with us in Season 2. He is a very talented artist and a very good animator. There is also the storyboard team, and in particular the supervisor, Simon Andriveau, and our art director, Julien Georgel. I’ve known him for a long time.”

These steps also mean that new directors are coming along. As Linke says, “I don’t think anyone has ever made anything great by not taking bets. I think if you have the right team you have the quality and it will be great, but you have to make bets. And I think based on the work that people had done so wonderfully in Season 1, we just really knew that we wanted to see, ‘Hey, what would you do with more, if you could amplify your voice and get it louder? ?’ I think sometimes it’s just a genuine desire to see what that person would do if given power.”

And it seems that with that power came more visual experimentation. “Many small improvements have been made over time: the first episodes of Arcane‘s first season doesn’t have the trademark anime eye flicker. That starts happening halfway through the season because we just haven’t figured it out yet. Hair simulation is getting better, all that stuff. And so I think at the end of the first season there was technical achievement, and then you transcend that, really think about style over technical quality. So Season 2 definitely features a lot of crazy bets and visual ideas, making Fortiche really push the boundaries of what they can do.

Charrue goes a little deeper into how the team can handle textures better: Season 2 was more efficient thanks to trial and error in Season 1. “There’s, I think, one graphical experiment per episode. I know that in the first episode you will see a black and white sequence where the art direction is linked to the emotion of the characters. It’s a mix of traditional and digital art, and it’s a beautiful one.” Charrue says they simply call these moments “special sequences” and that they have a team dedicated to them. He says, “Sometimes it’s really easy and sometimes it takes time just because we have to adjust our pipeline and workflow to build these sequences.”

Such sequences are often built around music, and ArcaneLinke’s musicality goes back to Fortiche Animation’s history and its start in music videos, and even Linke’s own music history (as a composer at Riot, but also in a band). “The band was called Panic,” he says, “and you think that sounds really cool when you’re 14 years old!”

It is the key to the DNA of the series. Charrue says so Arcane‘s graphic style feels in vogue with current animation trends and harkens back to a music video they worked on in 2012. “’La Gaviota’ by the band Limousine was, if I remember correctly, the first music video we produced ourselves, and it was a one-off series. The direction was in the hands of Jérôme, one of my collaborators, and the art director of ArcaneJulien Georgel, was also involved in this project.”

Embracing musical beats

Charrue says it was this video clip that caught Linke’s attention. Linke himself traces Arcane‘s concept back to those roots. “The idea of Arcane started when we said, “It feels like you could watch this on a bigger screen for a longer period of time, and you wouldn’t be bored.” So we always wanted to have moments where music really takes over.” Linke also said that animation offers more refined control over movement, something that the music-driven sequences benefit from. “We can capture specific beats and character movements at very precise timing, which is much more difficult in live action because there’s just a certain amount of give in human movements.”

Perhaps that interweaving of sound and movement has inspired Linke as he ponders what’s next for him. (Fortiche will direct Penelope of Sparta.) “There are things I definitely have on my bucket list,” he says. “People will run with this (soundbite) to places that I have no control over, but one day I want us to make a musical.” Charrue also wants to broaden his horizons, with the director noting a desire to explore more genres and styles, such as noir.

As for what they leave behind, Linke and Charrue hope so Arcane‘s popularity is reflected in other work. Linke longs for a situation where a rising tide lifts all ships, “where hopefully other studios and IPs will see, ‘Hey, bigger budget animation, animated series and expressive animation can be really great,’ and there will simply be more of them. .” He adds, “I think that’s what everyone in our circles wants to see. So I hope so Arcane can help with that.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if the budget, creative freedom and space the show had to explore became the rule and not the exception?

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Arcane Season 2 will be released in three parts on Netflix, with Act One premiering on November 9, Act Two on November 16 and Act Three on November 23. Watch the series’ new music video for Sheryl Lee Ralph’s “Blood, Sweat & Tears” below and find the previously released trailer here.