Christian Linke discusses the final chapter

“We have all watched TV shows without really knowing when to stop,” says Christian Linke.

“We don’t want to be one of those.”

Quitting when you’re ahead hasn’t always been a strength of the TV industry, and there are plenty of examples of shows “jumping the shark” and overstaying their welcome.

But ending a show on your own terms after just two seasons is relatively unusual.

That’s especially true when you’re the host of Arcane – the award-winning animated story inspired by the massively multiplayer online game League of Legends (LoL).

It tells the fate of two sisters Vi and Jinx, who find themselves on opposing sides in a war.

Pitch Perfect stars Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell – who recently starred in the Amazon series Fallout – voiced the pair.

Their performances and outstanding animation in the show by French studio Fortiche drew rave reviews, winning an Emmy for Arcane and sweeping the charts at the “animated Oscars” Annies.

It remains one of Netflix’s highest-rated original shows, and in the eyes of some, the best video game adaptation ever made.

So when trailer for part two released earlier this week and revealed that this would be the “final chapter”, some fans were surprised.

But host Christian, who works for LoL developer Riot Games, insisted that was always the plan.

“We just wanted to tell a very specific story that we had in mind for a very fitting ending,” he told BBC Newsbeat.

Christian admits he might do things differently now if he were to start over, knowing how well season one was received.

“But this is just what we built from the beginning,” he said.

“And so we had to follow our intuition on this and tell the story that should have been the way it was.”

The first season of Arcane reached Netflix’s Top 10 list in 83 countries worldwide in the month of its release.

League of Legends is one of the most popular games in the world by number of players and has a large scale in the esports industry.

Its annual World Cup – reminiscent of an Olympics or soccer-style event – is being held held at London’s O2 this year.

Christian said it was difficult to make a TV show in an industry that was “afraid of making big mistakes” and that a similar series with a core of “high-quality animation” did not exist at the time.

But he says having such a large fan base for the game has given Arcane’s creators confidence.

“Obviously just because it doesn’t exist, doesn’t mean that this huge amount of gamers don’t want to see these characters and these worlds realized in a big way.

“It was obvious to us. It wasn’t any secret formula. It was just doing what everyone obviously wanted.”

Despite being the creator of one of the world’s most played online games, Riot Games has struggled over the past few years.

The California-based company paid compensation for female employees last year is the result of a multi-million dollar sex discrimination lawsuit brought in 2018.

And earlier this year, it laid off 530 employees, with CEO Dylan Jadeja saying it had made some “big bets” in its bid to expand its gaming operations overseas. that didn’t go according to plan.

Christian, who joined Riot as a composer in 2010, said the Arcane project hasn’t been affected too much and remains a small team of about 20 people.

But he admits that seeing colleagues who have worked with him for many years leave is “really painful”.

“I think the pandemic has made people think, ‘Oh, I guess people are going to stay home forever and play games all day, and that’s definitely not going to change at all,’” he said.

“So I think the industry needs to wake up.”

Christian said the state of the industry has forced companies to ask themselves tough questions and “get really good answers”, focusing on creating “really great things and not just the same things”. similar”.

Fans won’t know more about Arcane’s story after season 2, but Christian said there are plans for further shows based on LoL with more of the game’s 167 playable characters.

Despite the industry’s broader troubles, demand for video game adaptations remains strong.

They have changed their reputation for low quality and are increasingly in high demand after a string of huge successes.

Christian said he would love to see his childhood favorites – Warcraft and Starcraft, from developer Blizzard – adapted into a TV series.

And he hopes the success of Arcane will inspire other creators to avoid “just trying to fit in with Hollywood and really find their own path.”

“We really just tried to stay true to the feel of our game, our tone,” he said.

“We should preserve video games. They’re different. And that’s okay. And that’s why they’re so fun. So let’s embrace it.”

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