After the monumental success of Riot’s League of Legends-themed animated show Arcane in 2021, fans have been eagerly counting down the days until season 2 drops on Netflix. This excitement was only further exasperated by Netflix announcing that the show had been renewed on the same day the season first aired.
However, two years later, Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent has confirmed that Arcane season 2 is further away than fans would like and will not be airing this year.
When season 1 of Arcane hit Netflix, it quickly became one of the best video game adaptations and one of the highest-rated TV shows. It still holds a solid 100% on Rotten Tomatoes two years later.
Nicolo Laurent had previously taken to Twitter to announce that season 2 wouldn’t take as long as season 1 did to develop but that 2022 was overly optimistic, which led many fans to presume that the show would drop this year, much to their disappointment it would seem.
In an interview that just dropped with the Chinese outlet Billibilli, Nicolo Laurent revealed that Arcane Season 2 would not be coming in 2023 for two main reasons. The first is that the development team focuses on keeping the quality level consistent and keeping that from falling by the wayside because of rushing.
The second and more problematic reason for the delay is that the team wasn’t sure if season 1 would be successful and therefore didn’t risk starting on season 2 when they probably should have. While Nicolo Laurent didn’t commit to a potential release date in the interview, he said he had already watched the second season’s third episode. While there was still much work to do polishing it, it does exist.
Riot usually ends the year with The League of Legends World Championships, which happen towards the end of November annually. Fans should set their sights on that for a potential teaser, trailer or release date for Arcane because it’s unlikely we will hear more about it until then.