Arcane Season 2: Christian Linke discusses final chapter

“We’ve all watched TV shows that didn’t really know when to stop,” says Christian Linke.

“We don’t want to be one of those.”

Quitting while you’re ahead isn’t always a strength of the TV industry, and there are plenty of examples of programmes “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 showrunner of Arcane – the award-winning animated story inspired by multiplayer online game League of Legends (LoL).

It follows the fates of sisters Vi and Jinx, who find themselves on opposing sides of a war.

Pitch Perfect star Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell – who recently starred in Amazon’s Fallout series – provided the pair’s voices.

Their performances and the show’s striking animation by French studio Fortiche drew huge praise, winning Arcane an Emmy and sweeping the board at “cartoon Oscars” the Annies.

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

So when the trailer for season two, external dropped earlier this week and revealed it would be the “final chapter”, some fans were surprised.

But showrunner Christian, who works for LoL developer Riot Games, insists it was always the plan.

“We want to just tell a very specific story where we have a very tailored ending in mind,” he tells BBC Newsbeat.

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

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

“And so we have to kind of follow our gut on this and tell the story that it was supposed to be.”