Netflix’s ‘Arcane’ Creator Says Season 2 Is Inspired by Fractured Politics: ‘It’s Only Gotten Worse’

Christian Linke, the creator of Netflix’s “Arcane,” admits he was inspired by the U.S. two-party system of politics and their inability to communicate with each other.

“Arcane” is set in a utopian city called Piltover and the wasteland city that runs underneath it called Zaun. Its citizens live off the scraps of rich Piltover residents oppressed by a police force. In attempts to wage this gap, or border some sort of peace through a partnership between these two cities, total war emerges, or so Season 2 will tell. 

When asked at the premiere of the second season in Los Angeles if the series took any inspiration from real life or specific historical events, Linke said, “If you’re asking me whether we were inspired by two sides of one nation who are incapable of even talking to each other anymore at a certain point, yes.” 

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He continued to explain this fact was exacerbated by the election, “It only got worse,” he said. “When we started this, it was like, ‘Yeah, there’s a certain inability to co-exist.’ But, I mean, you know, the election isn’t far away. And it’s only gotten worse. So I think there definitely is a bit of a mirror like at the end of the day.” 

Writer Amanda Overton also shared sentiments about being inspired by present day issues: “We were always feeling this sort of widening left wealth gap just in our lifetimes, and it felt like we could do that in a really inspiring imaginative fun way.”

The League of Legends-inspired animated narrative series premiered on Netflix in 2021 becoming the number one show in 52 countries. Its the first of three parts of the second and final season premieres on the streaming on Nov. 9 . The next act premieres on Nov. 16. following by the last on Nov. 23.