Arcane, a Netflix original series, is the first streaming series to be recognised for an Outstanding Animation Emmy. Big Mouth and BoJack Horseman were nominated in the past, but neither won; this is the first time a Netflix show has ever won the award. As a result, the victory is significant for Netflix. The Simpsons, What If…?, Rick and Morty, Bob’s Burgers, and other animated series competed for this year’s Outstanding Animation Emmy. Three of them are recent winners and category regulars, including Bob’s Burgers in 2017, The Simpsons in 2019, and Rick and Morty in 2020 and 2018.
The iconic video game franchise League of Legends served as the inspiration for the series, which debuted in November 2021. Since then, it has grown to be one of Netflix’s biggest successes to date and currently boasts the exceptional RottenTomatoes score of 100%. In the twin cities of Piltover and Zaun, where they are divided and later reunited, Jinx and Vi’s origin story is explored as they engage in combat on opposing sides of a conflict between technological paradise and dystopia. In addition to Steinfeld, Ella Purnell, Katie Leung, Kevin Alejandro, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and others, the series was produced in collaboration with Riot Games.
The victory follows Netflix’s announcement that Season 2 is already in production and will premiere sometime in 2023. Arcane: Bridging the Rift, a condensed documentary series by Riot Games, was also only recently made available. In the documentary series, the Arcane creators provide a close-up look at what it’s like to work there and explain how the series pcame to be one of the most well-liked and widely-discussed of 2021.
Arcane co-creator Christian Linke was present to accept the honour. Linke recognised his inspiration’s sources in his remarks. “Thank you for this. It’s a big deal for us, as we come from video games. It’s been amazing to see the world embrace our characters and our stories, so thanks to Netflix, who believed in us from the beginning, thanks to Riot Games, who worked on the whole IP … and to all the people that have been with our game and League of Legends for the last 12 years or so who helped make it as big as it is now.”